Independent parallel interaction space instantiation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for creating a new multiparty interaction among a subset of a plurality of participants in an existing multiparty interaction from within the existing multiparty interaction are described, wherein the new multiparty interaction is established based on authentications, presentation materials, and/or settings of the existing multiparty interaction.

FIELD

The present disclosure is generally related to virtual multipartyinteractions, and more specifically to systems and methods forfacilitating virtual multiparty interactions.

BACKGROUND

Advances in hardware, software, and networking have contributed to theincreasing popularity of online meetings. Whereas in decades pastindividuals who wanted to meet together needed to travel to a singlelocation for an in-person meeting, today virtual meetings occur on aregular basis, allowing meeting participants to engage with othermeeting participants from the comfort of their respective homes oroffices, using readily available hardware and software to share audio,video, and data communications across one or more networks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer to likefigures and structural elements throughout the various figures. Thefollowing drawings are illustrative of embodiments of the disclosure andare not meant to limit the scope of claims.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system for virtual multiparty interactionaccording to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a communication device for use in a virtualmultiparty interaction system according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a collaboration server according to someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method according to another embodiment ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method according to yet another embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method according to still anotherembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method according to a further embodimentof the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a screenshot displayed on a graphical user interface of acommunication device according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 10 is another screenshot displayed on a graphical user interface ofa communication device according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 11 is yet another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 12 is still another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 13 is yet another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 14 is still another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 15 is yet another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 16 is still another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 17 is yet another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure; and

FIG. 18 is still another screenshot displayed on a graphical userinterface of a communication device according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The terms “memory,” “computer memory,” and “computer-readable medium,”as used herein, refer to any tangible data storage medium thatparticipates in providing instructions to a processor for execution.Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited tonon-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatilemedia includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks.Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Commonforms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, aflexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium,magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards,paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, aPROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like amemory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other mediumfrom which a computer can read instructions. When the computer-readablemedium is configured as part of a database, it is to be understood thatthe database may be any type of database, such as relational,hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, thedisclosure is considered to include a tangible storage medium ordistribution medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successormedia, in which the software implementations and aspects of the presentdisclosure are stored.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-endedexpressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. Forexample, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at leastone of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B,or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.When each one of A, B, and C in the above expressions refers to anelement, such as X, Y, and Z, or class of elements, such as X₁-X_(n),Y₁-Y_(m), and Z₁-Z_(o), the phrase is intended to refer to a singleelement selected from X, Y, and Z, a combination of elements selectedfrom the same class (e.g., X₁ and X₂) as well as a combination ofelements selected from two or more classes (e.g., Y₁ and Z_(o)).

The terms “a” or “an” are not intended to impose a limitation as tonumber. For example, “a” or “an” when used with respect to an entityrefer to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”),“one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. Itis also to be noted that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and“having” can be used interchangeably. The use of “comprising,”“including,” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant toencompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well asadditional items.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variationsthereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any typeof methodology, process, mathematical operation, or technique.

The term “means” as used herein shall be given its broadest possibleinterpretation in accordance with 35 U.S.C. § 112, Paragraph 6.Accordingly, a claim incorporating the term “means” shall cover allstructures, materials, or acts set forth herein, and all of theequivalents thereof. Further, the structures, materials or acts and theequivalents thereof shall include all those described in the summary ofthe invention, brief description of the drawings, detailed description,abstract, and claims themselves.

The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developedhardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, orcombination of hardware and software that is capable of performing thefunctionality associated with that element.

It should be understood that every maximum numerical limitation giventhroughout this disclosure is deemed to include each and every lowernumerical limitation as an alternative, as if such lower numericallimitations were expressly written herein. Every minimum numericallimitation given throughout this disclosure is deemed to include eachand every higher numerical limitation as an alternative, as if suchhigher numerical limitations were expressly written herein. Everynumerical range given throughout this disclosure is deemed to includeeach and every narrower numerical range that falls within such broadernumerical range, as if such narrower numerical ranges were all expresslywritten herein.

The term “select,” as used herein with respect to an icon, tool, orother digital item, refers to tapping (e.g. with a finger or stylus),touching (e.g. with a finger or stylus), and/or clicking on (e.g. with acomputer mouse, trackball, touchpad, or trackpad) the icon, tool, orother digital item. Selecting is intended to be an inclusive term thatencompasses the foregoing options and any other suitable method ofselecting a digital item.

The term “communication device” as used herein refers to any device thatmay be used to connect a participant to a virtual multipartyinteraction, and may include any device having a processor, an interfacefor sending and receiving electronic communications, and a graphicaluser interface. Examples of communication devices include desktopcomputers, laptop computers, smart phones, and tablets.

A “computing device” may be any device that includes a processor, amemory or other computer readable storage medium storing instructionsfor execution by the processor, and at least one interface.

The term “media signals” may refer to audio signals, video signals, datasignals, or any combination thereof.

Examples provided throughout the present disclosure (which may be, butneed not be, denoted with “for example,” “by way of example,” “e.g.,” orany other term or phrase suggesting that an example is being or will bedescribed) are intended to illustrate one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure, and are not given by way of limitation.

When people are interacting in electronic or virtual multipartyconferences or collaborations (also referred to herein as interactionsor multiparty interactions) via communication devices, it is importantfor conference participants who are not actively speaking to have theaudio input of their respective communication devices muted, asbackground noise is often very distractive to others. Interactionparticipants are constantly having to manually manage mute functions oftheir respective communication devices, and often fail to mute andunmute at the right time. To be highly effective and simple to use,multiparty interaction environments need automated ways to dynamicallyhandle muting, especially of audio but in some situations of video aswell. This disclosure facilitates muting automation based uponcharacteristics of the interaction environment (also referred to hereinas a multiparty interaction space, an interaction workspace, and acollaboration workspace) of a multiparty interaction, and further basedon the movements of participants within the environment. Embodiments ofthe present disclosure use unique characteristics and configurations ofa visually illustrated interaction environment to dynamically controlparticipant muting characteristics as they participate in theenvironment.

The present disclosure describes a system, method, and apparatus forenabling naturally coordinated interactions in an organized multipartyinteraction space. Participant icons are arranged into two or moreareas, including an audience area and a presentation area or stage. Theactive presenter is in the presentation stage and may be displayed aslive video with unmuted audio. Participants congregate in the audiencearea and may be represented as icons, still images, or live video imagesas they desire; however their audio is muted.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, an interactionworkspace displayed on a graphical user interface of a communicationdevice for use in a multiparty interaction may be divided into two ormore areas each, with different interaction audio and/or video mutingcharacteristics, where muting characteristics can be relative anddifferent in relation to participants in the area itself or in relationto other areas. All participants in a specific area can have a firstdefined muting behavior (as in audio muted) as applied to a differentinteraction area, but a different second muting behavior in relation tothe area in which the participants are located.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the automated control ofaudio and/or video muting characteristics of participants in a specificinteraction area in a multiple area multiparty interaction space may bebased on the participants' existence in, or movement in or out of, thespecific interaction area. The area-specific audio and video mutingcharacteristics may be different. The muting characteristics may beprovisioned and saved in relation to each area. The mutingcharacteristics of a specific area may be dynamically adjustable. Theparticipants may automatically inherit and instantiate defined mutingcharacteristics when they enter a specific area.

Additionally, muting characteristics as applied to one area may berelative to what is observed by participants in a different area. Forexample, those participants in a presentation area may have unmutedaudio and/or video as observed by those in an audience area. Differentmuting characteristics may apply relative to different interaction areasat the same time. For example, participants in a private interactionarea may be unmuted (with respect to audio, video, or both) for everyonein that private area but muted for everyone in presentation andaudiences areas that those in the private area are observing.

Thus, the present disclosure uses unique characteristics andconfigurations of a visually illustrated interaction environment todynamically control participant muting characteristics as theyparticipate in the environment.

Also, many times in electronic or virtual multiparty interactions(including what is often referred to as conferencing), primarily oneperson at any instant is presenting material to the larger group, and itis rather hard to coordinate participation in related discussions bymembers of the group due to the difficulties that arise as severalpeople try to interrupt at once. Various media performance issues likelatency cause people to speak over each other or otherwise collide whenthey begin to talk. Other human factors such as dominant personalitiescreate imbalance in the overall interaction. The present disclosureprovides for both human controlled and automated moderation of thediscussion by placing those that want to talk in a queue and servicingthat queue to control the flow of interaction and eliminate dominancefactors. The present disclosure provides for the automatic control ofmuting actions, freeing the individuals involved (including bothmoderators, if present, and individual participants) from thoseresponsibilities. According to embodiments of the present disclosure,movement between interaction areas of a multiparty interaction space maybe organized and coordinated via a queue, such that a participant may bepromoted from the top of the queue and moved to a presentation area,where audio and video input from that participant to another area of theinteraction space may be automatically enabled for that participant.Audio and video input from that participant may be disabled when theparticipant moves or is moved out of the presentation area afteraddressing the larger group.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, when a participantin a multiparty interaction located in the audience area of a multipartyinteraction space desires to address the audience, the participant mayselect an icon displayed in the multiparty interaction space thatrepresents the participant (and/or the participant's communicationdevice), in response to which the participant (or, more specifically, anidentifier or other representation of the participant's communicationdevice) may be placed into an interaction queue. When allowed by thecurrent presenter, or automatically as desired, the first participant inthe queue is promoted to the presentation stage. In some embodiments,participants promoted to the presentation stage are displayed on thepresentation stage of the multiparty interaction space with live video,and the participant's audio input is unmuted automatically. When theparticipant is finished speaking or otherwise addressing the audience,the participant may select the icon that represents the participantwithin the multiparty interaction space, which may cause theparticipant's icon to return to the audience area. The returned icon mayrevert to the format it had before it was promoted to the presentationstage (e.g. a simple icon, a still image, or a live video feed), and theaudio and/or video input from the participant corresponding to the iconmay be muted. The next participant in the queue may then be promoted.Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure facilitate orderlyinteraction and eliminate the need for participants in a multipartyinteraction to manage mute functions or step on each other when tryingto gain the opportunity to interact.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a participantin a multiparty interaction may signal a desire to address others, whichsignaling may cause that participant to be placed in an interactionqueue maintained in the order that each participant's signal isreceived. The interaction queue may then be processed such that when aparticipant is promoted from the queue, that participant (or, morespecifically, an icon representing that participant and/or thatparticipant's communication device) is moved to the presentation area ofthe interaction space, and the participant's audio and/or video areautomatically unmuted.

Also according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, when aparticipant in the presentation area of a multiparty interaction spacesignals that the participant is finished with the participant'spresentation, the participant may be moved back to the audience area,where an icon representing the participant may resume its previous state(e.g. a simple icon, a still image, or a live video feed), theparticipant's audio and/or video input may be automatically muted, andthe next participant in queue may be promoted.

In some embodiments, queue promotion may occur automatically ormanually, based on a choice by a participant in or a moderator of amultiparty interaction, and the participant or moderator may have theability to provision and save such a choice. Additionally, participantsin a multiparty interaction may be assigned varying levels of priority,based upon individual or group membership data, when entering a queue,and embodiments of the present disclosure may provide the ability toprovision, save, and act upon such individual or group membership data.Also in embodiments of the present disclosure, the muting of audio andvideo in each area of a multiparty interaction space may be coordinatedwithout manual user control actions, based simply on each participant'slocation (e.g. the location within the multiparty interaction space ofan icon representing each participant) in a particular area.

Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure use positional definedinteraction privileges, possibly in conjunction with a queue that usesorder-related processing or intelligent (not simply order-related)processing.

Most multiparty interactions have a single common set of interactioncapabilities constantly available to all participants. To be highlyproductive, different participants can benefit from differentinteraction functionality at different times and situations in aninteraction. Embodiments of the present disclosure facilitate suchfunctionally based on an easily manipulated positional organization ofparticipants. More particularly, according to some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, different areas in the overall interaction spaceenable unique interaction capabilities and behaviors for participantslocating themselves (e.g. via an icon or other digital representation ofeach participant) in such areas.

In one embodiment according to the present disclosure, one or moreinteraction areas within an overall interaction space (that includes,e.g., a presentation area and an audience area) provide uniqueinteraction behaviors including such behaviors as a whisper mode amongindividual participants, and/or the ability to actively participate in asmall private group while still observing activities in other areas ofthe overall interaction space. Additional examples of differentinteraction behaviors or characteristics may include consuming differentinteractive content and opportunities independently in each uniqueinteraction area while being able to easily move between uniqueinteraction areas using simple drag motions of a communication deviceuser interface.

Thus, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, a first interactionarea of an overall interaction space provides one set of interactioncapabilities for participants therein and a second interaction area ofthe overall interaction space provides a different set of interactioncapabilities for participants therein, where the first and secondinteraction areas are part of an overall collective experience. In someembodiments, one set of interaction capabilities involves the ability tobe seen and/or heard by participants within the same interaction area.In other embodiments, one set of interaction capabilities involves theability to be seen and/or heard by participants in other specificinteraction areas

Also in some embodiments, one set of interaction capabilities involves awhisper mode between selected participants in the same interaction area.In other embodiments, one set of interaction capabilities involves awhisper mode broadcast to all participants in the same interaction area.In still other embodiments, one set of interaction capabilities involvesselective individualized texting between participants in the sameinteraction area. In yet further embodiments, one set of interactioncapabilities involves selective texting broadcast to all participants inthe same interaction area. In some embodiments, one set of interactioncapabilities involves selective texting broadcast to all participants ina different interaction area. In other embodiments, one set ofinteraction capabilities involves white-boarding (e.g. sharing notes,comments, or other information placed on a digital whiteboard by aparticipant via the participant's communication device) betweenparticipants in the same interaction area.

As can be seen from the foregoing, the present disclosure uses easilymanipulated positional organization of participants in multipleinteraction areas within a common interaction space to provide multiplesets of disparate communication capabilities.

People electronically attending a presentation, conference, or othervirtual multiparty interaction often have a need to have a sidebarinteraction among a small subset of participants while still observingbut not disturbing the overall larger interaction. Today, people useadditional communication channels like instant messaging, phone calls,or other methods as back-channels for holding such a sidebar outside ofthe primary communications event. The present disclosure defines asystem and method to easily enable such interactions through amultiparty interaction workspace while still observing the event inprogress without disturbing it.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide the ability to dynamicallyadd an additional interaction partition to an interaction area within anoverall interaction space, such that when a participant establishes hisor her presence in the additional interaction partition (e.g. bydragging, via a user interface of a communication device, an icon thatrepresents the participant from outside of the additional interactionpartition to inside of the interaction partition), the participant isable to interact with audio and/or video with everyone in the additionalinteraction partition while still hearing and observing activity inother areas of the overall interaction space, but not being heard orseen by participants within the overall interaction space but outside ofthe additional interaction partition. In some embodiments, audiocommunication from other participants is presented to a participant viathe participant's communication device in a 3D spatial format, whereinaudio from each area of the interaction space is reproduced with adifferent apparent source positioned consistent with the orientation ofthe various areas of the interaction space, making it easy for theparticipant to distinguish from which area of the interaction space theaudio originates.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a participant maydrag, within an interaction workspace and via a communication device, apartition creation instance (also referred to herein as a partitiontool) from a tool pallet of the interaction workspace into an overallinteraction space of the interaction workspace to create a newinteraction partition or area with unique capabilities, whilemaintaining affiliations to existing interaction areas. In someembodiments, the unique interaction capabilities include 3D spatialaudio positionally sensitive to the relative location of variousparticipation areas and/or of icons representing one or more of theparticipants within the interaction workspace. Also in some embodiments,the unique interaction capabilities include specific audio and mutinginstances in each area of the interaction workspace.

In still further embodiments, dragging (e.g. via a communication deviceand within an interaction workspace) icons representing participants ina multiparty interaction from one interaction area to a new interactionarea (e.g. an area created with the partition creation instance tool)initiates specific interaction capabilities in the new interaction areawhile maintaining the participants' presence, and a different set ofinteraction capabilities, in the original area(s). The muting of audioand video in an area may be coordinated without manual user controlactions, based simply upon the participant's presence (e.g. via an iconwithin the multiparty interaction workspace) in the area.

As can be seen from the foregoing, the present disclosure defines theconcept of dynamic addition of personal interaction spaces to groupinteractions via simple user interaction techniques, as well as theconcept of providing unique characteristics to the dynamically addedenvironments that are necessary to make such interactions productive.The unique characteristics may be defined by a participant in themultiparty interaction and/or by a moderator of the multipartyinteraction. Once defined, the unique characteristics may be provided bya collaboration server or by a communication device running acollaboration application, and may be saved as default uniquecharacteristics for dynamically added environments, and may be modifiedas desired (whether as a one-time modification for a specificdynamically added environment or as a modification to the default uniquecharacteristics that will apply (at least by default) to dynamicallyadded environments going forward.

It is not unusual for participants (and, in particular, for a subset ofparticipants) in one conferencing event or other virtual multipartyinteraction to encounter a need to move to a different interactionevent. Unfortunately today such needs typically involve coordinating howto get together and exchanging some notification via email, instantmessage, or some other communication medium. Some of the most productivesystems in place, like Avaya Flare, involve transferring phone calls ofindividual participants, which takes time and proper coordination.(Avaya Flare is a phone call centric user interface capable ofmanipulating caller representations to transfer calls of one or moreparties.) The present disclosure provides a simple method to dynamicallycreate a new interaction environment or event with similarcharacteristics to an existing event, and to easily place a group ofparticipants from the initial event into the new event, such that theparticipants are transparently authenticated and readily able tointeract. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for dragging,within a virtual interaction workspace of a multiparty interaction andvia a communication device, one or more participants (e.g. iconsrepresenting one or more participants) out of an overall multipartyinteraction workspace to automatically define, instantiate,authenticate, and populate a new multiparty multimedia interactionworkspace for the moved or transferred participants, where the newmultiparty multimedia interaction workspace has substantially similarcharacteristics and materials as the previous multiparty interactionworkspace, or, alternatively, where the new multiparty multimediainteraction workspace has characteristics and materials as desiredand/or selected by one or more of the moved or transferred participants.

Embodiments of the present disclosure therefore provide the ability todrag (via a communication device and within a virtual multipartyinteraction workspace of a multiparty interaction) a group of iconsrepresenting participants in the multiparty interaction from an area inthe virtual multiparty interaction workspace out of the overallinteraction workspace (not just an area of the overall interactionworkspace) to instantiate a second or additional multiparty interactionworkspace for the participants represented by the group of icons, wherethe new multiparty interaction workspace has characteristics similar tothe multiparty interaction workspace just exited, and where the newparticipants are automatically properly authenticated into the newmultiparty interaction workspace exactly as they were in the previousmultiparty interaction workspace.

In embodiments of the present disclosure implemented in a browserparadigm, a participant in a multiparty interaction may use acommunication device to drag participants (represented by icons in avirtual multiparty interaction workspace) one at a time, or collectivelyas a group, to a new tab, which action causes the new tab to instantiatethe new multiparty interaction workspace.

In another embodiment, dragging participants (represented by icons in avirtual multiparty interaction workspace) outside of an existingmultiparty interaction workspace in a particular direction (e.g. up,down, left, or right) instantiates the new multiparty interactionworkspace, and each dragging direction can result in creation of adifferent new space. On mobile devices like smartphones and tablets,swiping the multiparty interaction workspace itself in a specificdirection can cause the new interaction workspace that was created bydragging participants in that specific direction to be displayed. Thus,the direction of dragging can be used to define a specific multipartyinteraction workspace. In some embodiments, the direction of draggingcan also be used to define default characteristics of the new workspace.For example, dragging in one direction may comprise an indication that afirst set of default characteristics should be applied to the newworkspace, while dragging in another direction may comprise anindication that a second set of default characteristics should beapplied to the new workspace.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, dragging one ormore participants from an overall multiparty interaction workspacecreates a new multiparty interaction workspace. The new interactionworkspace may be substantially similar in nature and characteristics tothe interaction workspace in which the participants previously existedtogether. The transferred or moved participants may be authenticatedinto the new space using the same credentials used to enter the initialspace. Additionally, the moved or transferred participants may enjoy thesame privileges in the new space that they enjoyed in the previousinteraction workspace.

Also in embodiments of the present disclosure, the moved or transferredparticipants in the new workspace may be initially endowed with the sameaudio, video, graphical, and other characteristics they had at the timeof they were moved or transferred from the previous interactionworkspace (including, for example, the same audio and video mutingattributes). The presentation materials existing in the initialinteraction workspace may be automatically propagated or otherwisetransferred to the new interaction workspace. Systems and methods of thepresent disclosure may provide for the proper establishment of all mediaflows in the new interaction workspace.

Still further in embodiments of the present disclosure, participants maybe automatically removed from the previous interaction workspace whenthey enter the new interaction workspace. Alternatively, the moved ortransferred participants may be suspended (e.g. the audio and/or videocommunication of the participants may be fully muted, and iconsrepresenting the participants may be grayed out) in the initialinteraction workspace, but may nevertheless remain or otherwise maintaina presence in the initial interaction workspace while they occupy thenew interaction workspace. In some such embodiments, participants whohave relocated to the new interaction workspace may return to theirsuspended existences in the initial interaction workspace when they exitthe new interaction workspace, and those suspended existences may berestored to the active configuration they had before they becamesuspended. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure provide theability to provision and save options on what behaviors or events occurwhen new interaction workspaces are created.

Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure may be used to essentiallyclone a multiparty interaction workspace for selected participants whileoptionally maintaining an affiliation of the selected participants tothe initial interaction workspace.

Before any embodiments of the disclosure are explained in furtherdetail, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited in itsapplication to the details of construction and the arrangement ofcomponents set forth in the following description and/or illustrated inthe following drawings. The disclosure is capable of other embodimentsand of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, itis to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein isfor the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a plurality of communication devices 104 a-104g in a multiparty interaction system 100 according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure participate in a multiparty interaction over acommunication network 112. A collaboration server 116, also incommunication with the communication network 112, may host themultiparty interaction, using a collaboration service 120. One or moreof the communication devices 104 a-104 g may co-host the multipartyinteraction together with the collaboration server 116, using acollaboration application 108. Alternatively, one or more of thecommunication devices 104 a-104 g may host or co-host the multipartyinteraction without involvement of a collaboration server 116. In someembodiments, at least two communication devices 104 may establish apeer-to-peer connection and, using the collaboration application 108,establish a multiparty interaction over the peer-to-peer connection,without using a separate communication network 112 or a collaborationserver 116.

In some embodiments, the coordination application 108 may be hosted inthe cloud and provided through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.The collaboration server 116 (processing instructions from thecollaboration service 120) can receive a request from a communicationdevice 104 to establish a multiparty interaction with two or more ofcommunication devices 104 a-104 g, and can then establish acommunication channel with the specified communication devices 104 overthe communication network 112. Alternatively, the collaboration server116 can open or establish a communication channel at a predeterminedtime based on a previously scheduled reservation, and host a log-inprocess whereby any communication device 104 may join the collaborativeinteraction upon receipt by the collaboration server 116 of propercredentials from the computing device in question. The communicationnetwork 112 may be any known communication network suitable forcommunications between or among computing devices, including a localarea network, a wide area network, the Internet, a mesh network, and soforth. The communication channel between the communication managementserver 112 on the one hand and each of the communication devices 104 onthe other hand may be secured using any known authentication and orauthorization systems or methods. The operation of a system 100 isdescribed in more detail with respect to FIG. 4-18 below.

A variety of protocols may be used to set up multiparty interactionsaccording to embodiments of the present disclosure, including hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP), session initiation protocol (SIP), WebRTC (WebReal-Time Communication), HTML (hypertext markup language, includingHTML5), dedicated video feeds, and the like. In embodiments using SIP orWebRTC, for example, media identification and negotiation may beachieved using the session description protocol (SDP). Transmission ofmedia streams such as voice or other audio and video may be accomplishedusing Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) or Secure Real-time TransportProtocol (SRTP). Where security is important, the protocol may beencrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS). Each transaction of anSIP-enabled multiparty interaction consists of a client request (e.g. bya communication device 104) that invokes a particular method or functionon the collaboration server 116, and at least one response. Thus, toinitiate an SIP-enabled collaborative interaction, a communicationdevice 104 a may send an INVITE message to the collaboration server 116(or, in some embodiments, to another communication device 104) togetherwith one or more uniform resource identifiers (URI) indicating where themessage should be sent, e.g. to one or more additional communicationdevices 104. The collaboration server 116 may forward the INVITE messageto the specified communication device(s) 104, and respond to the INVITEmessage with a provisional response to the communication device 104 aindicating that it has received and is processing the message. Once thespecified communication device(s) 104 receives the INVITE message, itmay send a success message to the collaboration server 116, which may inturn send a success message to the communication device 104 a. Thecollaboration server 116 may then send an ACK message to the specifiedcommunication device(s) 104 to confirm reliable message exchanges, andthe communication device 104 a may also send an ACK message to thecollaboration server 116 for the same purpose. Once reliablecommunications have been established between the communication device104 a and the collaboration server 116, and between the collaborationserver 116 and the specified communication devices 104, media can beexchanged between or among the communication device 104 a and thespecified communication device(s) 104 via the collaboration server 116using, by way of example but not limitation, RTP, SRTP, or WebRTC.

A communication device 104 may leave the multiparty interaction bysending a BYE message to the collaboration server 116, which may forwardthe BYE message to the communication device 104 a and/or to one or moreof any remaining specified communication devices 104. The collaborationserver 116 may also send a success response to the communication device104 that initiated the BYE message, to which the departing communicationdevice 104 may send a success response to the collaboration server 116.In some embodiments, the multiparty interaction may be terminated eitherwhen one of two remaining communication devices 104 sends a BYE messageas set forth above. Also in some embodiments, when the communicationdevice 104 a sends a BYE or other terminating message to thecollaboration server 116, the entire multiparty interaction isterminated regardless of the number of remaining participants. In stillother embodiments, the communication device 104 a may send a specialmessage to the collaboration server 116, different than the BYE messagedescribed above, that causes the multiparty interaction to terminate.

The above-described process of establishing and terminating a multipartyinteraction using the SIP protocol is provided by way of example only,without limitation. Other protocols may be used to establish multipartyinteractions according to embodiments of the present disclosure, andother processes may be followed to terminate multiparty interactions,whether using SIP or another protocol. A communication device 104 thatinitiates a multiparty interaction may specify the parameters of theinteraction, including, without limitation, one or more of who mayparticipate, whether there is a cap on the number of participants, whowill be the presenter (at least initially), and which forms of mediawill be shared during the multiparty interaction (e.g. audio, video,data). The specified parameters may then be used to establish themultiparty interaction, and may in some embodiments be provided to eachcommunication device 104 that joins the multiparty interaction. In someembodiments, certain interaction parameters are determined by eachparticipant. Such parameters may include, for example and withoutlimitation, which forms of media may be provided by the participant viathe participant's communication device 104, and how the participant willbe represented to other participants via their respective communicationdevices during the multiparty interaction.

Media and other data transferred between or among communication devices104, whether through a communication network 112 and/or a collaborationserver 116 or not, may utilize any available communication path. Forexample, in a local area network, data transfer among the participatingdevices may occur via Ethernet cables, or wirelessly via wireless modemsand a wireless router. Alternatively, communications may occur over awide area network such as the Internet, in which case the particularcommunication path between participating devices may be determined viaTCP/IP or other networking protocols. In some embodiments, one or bothof the collaboration service 120 and the collaboration application 108is configured to identify a communication path that allows for thefastest transmission of data, or that allows for transmission of thegreatest amount of data, from among a plurality of availablecommunication paths, and to use the identified communication path.

Applications for establishing, maintaining, and terminatingcollaborative interactions as described herein may be stand-aloneapplications stored in a computer readable storage medium of a computingdevice 104 (e.g. collaboration application 108) and/or a collaborationserver 116 (e.g. collaboration service 120). In other embodiments,however, such applications may be embedded in or operate as part ofother applications, including browsers, operating systems, productivityapplications, document processing applications, or the like.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a communication device 104 according toembodiments of the present disclosure that is suitable for use as in amultiparty interaction may include a memory (e.g. a computer readablestorage medium) 204 (which, in embodiments, may have stored therein acollaboration application 108 that provides needed functionality toimplement the systems and/or methods described herein), one or moreprocessors 208, one or more accessories 212 (which may include, forexample and without limitation, one or more cameras 216, one or morevideo cameras 220, one or more microphones 224, and one or morespeakers, headsets, or other audio transducers 228), a network interface232, a power module 236, a graphical user interface 240, and one or moredrivers 244. Persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize, basedon the present disclosure, that additional or fewer components may beused in a communication device such as the communication device 104 toimplement the systems and methods of the present disclosure.

A memory 204 as used in embodiments of the present disclosure maycorrespond to any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium. Insome embodiments, the memory 204 may comprise volatile or non-volatilememory and a controller for the same. Non-limiting examples of a memory204 that may be utilized in a communication device 104 include aportable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM)(including any variety of random access memory, such as dynamic RAM(DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM)), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or EEPROM or Flash memory), anoptical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), anoptical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitablecombination of the foregoing. The memory 204 stores instructions forexecution by the processor 208, and may store some or all of drivers328, as well as the collaboration application 108 and, in someembodiments, software and/or other instructions associated with thegraphical user interface 240, the network interface 232, and/or one ormore of the accessories 212.

A processor 208 as used in embodiments of the present disclosure maycorrespond to one or many microprocessors that are contained within acommon housing, circuit board, or blade with the memory 204. Theprocessor 208 may be a multipurpose, programmable device that acceptsdigital data as input, processes the digital data according toinstructions stored in its internal memory, and provides results asoutput. The processor 208 may implement sequential digital logic as ithas internal memory. As with most microprocessors, the processor 208 mayoperate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary numeral system.The processor 208 may be or include, without limitation, any one or moreof a Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 800 and 801, Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 610 and615 with 4G LTE Integration and 64-bit computing, Apple® A7 processorwith 64-bit architecture, Apple® M7 motion coprocessors, Samsung®Exynos® series, the Intel® Core™ family of processors, the Intel® Xeon®family of processors, the Intel® Atom™ family of processors, the IntelItanium® family of processors, Intel® Core® i5-4670K and i7-4770K 22 nmHaswell, Intel® Core® i5-3570K 22 nm Ivy Bridge, the AMD® FX™ family ofprocessors, AMD® FX-4300, FX-6300, and FX-8350 32 nm Vishera, AMD®Kaveri processors, Texas Instruments® Jacinto C6000™ automotiveinfotainment processors, Texas Instruments® OMAP™ automotive-grademobile processors, ARM® Cortex™-M processors, ARM® Cortex-A andARM926EJ-S™ processors, other industry-equivalent processors, and mayperform computational functions using any known or future-developedstandard, instruction set, libraries, and/or architecture. The processor208 may execute instructions stored in the memory 204 to initiate,maintain, and/or terminate multiparty interactions as disclosed herein.

The one or more microphones 224 and speakers 228 may be connected to anaudio I/O interface 226 to receive and transmit audio informationsignals (via the network interface 232) among the various components ofthe multiparty interaction system 100. By way of example, the audio I/Ointerface 226 may comprise one or more of an associated amplifier andanalog to digital converter. Alternatively or additionally, the audioI/O interface 226 may be configured to separate audio information from amedia stream provided to, or received from, the collaboration server116. This information may be separated in real-time, or as theinformation is obtained or received by the communication device 104. Theone or more microphones 224 and/or speakers 228 may optionally be usedduring a multiparty interaction according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, a plurality of speakers 228 areconfigured to provide surround sound and/or to provide 3D audio effects,including, without limitation, spatial audio. One or more drivers 244may provide instructions, for execution by the processor, that implementthese effects using the one or more speakers 228.

The graphical user interface 240, the camera 216, and/or the videocamera 220 may be connected to or include a video I/O interface 218,which may be used to receive and transmit video signals (via the networkinterface 232) among the various components of the multipartyinteraction system 100. Optionally, the video I/O interface 218 canoperate with compressed and/or uncompressed video signals. The video I/Ointerface 218 can support high data rates associated with image capturedevices such as the camera 216 and the video camera 220. Additionally oralternatively, the video I/O interface 218 may convert analog videosignals to digital signals. A video I/O interface 218 may be configuredto separate video information from a media stream provided to, orreceived from, the collaboration server 116. During a multipartyinteraction according to embodiments of the present disclosure, thegraphical user interface 240 is used to display a virtual multipartyinteraction workspace (also referred to herein as a collaborationworkspace, an interaction workspace, and an interactive space) to aparticipant of the multiparty interaction using the communication device104 having the graphical user interface 240. The camera 216 and/or thevideo camera 220 may optionally be used during the multipartyinteraction based on the preference of the participant using thecommunication device 104, one or more parameters set by the hostingparticipant, or one or more rules of the multiparty interaction, asdescribed more fully below.

The network interface 232 (also referred to herein as a communicationinterface) may comprise hardware that facilitates communications withother communication devices 104 and/or with a collaboration server 116over the communication network 112. In some embodiments, the networkinterface 232 may additionally or alternatively facilitatecommunications with other communication devices 104 via a peer-to-peerconnection. The network interface 232 may include an Ethernet port, aWi-Fi card, a Network Interface Card (NIC), a cellular interface (e.g.,antenna, filters, and associated circuitry), or the like. The networkinterface 232 may be configured to establish and maintain a connectionbetween the communication device 104 and the communication network 112,and may further be configured to encode and decode communications (e.g.,packets) according to a protocol utilized by the communication network112. During a multiparty interaction according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, data corresponding to the information displayed onthe graphical user interface 240 of the communication device 104 may besent via the communication network 112 from the network interface 232,and information displayed on a graphical user interface of one or moreother communication devices participating in the multiparty interactionmay be received at the network interface 232 via the communicationnetwork 112. Additionally, the network interface 232 may be used to sendand/or receive media signals (including audio signals, video signals,and data signals), commands, requests, indications, and other signalsutilized in embodiments of the present disclosure.

The power module 236 may include a built-in power supply (e.g., battery)and/or a power converter that facilitates the conversion ofexternally-supplied AC power into DC power that is used to power thevarious components of the computing device 104. In some embodiments, thepower module 236 may also include some implementation of surgeprotection circuitry to protect the components of the communicationdevice 104, or other associated hardware, from power surges.

The graphical user interface 240 as used in embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be or include hardware (such as a computer monitor,television screen, laptop screen, tablet screen, smart phone screen, andthe like, any one of which may be a resistive, capacitive, surfaceacoustic wave, or infrared touch screen, an LCD screen, an LED screen, aplasma screen, or a CRT screen), software (such as operating systems,browsers, applications, media players, and the like), or any combinationthereof. During a multiparty interaction according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, the graphical user interface 240 displays to theuser of the communication device 104 a virtual interaction workspace.For example, the graphical user interface 240 displays the screenshotsdepicted in FIGS. 9 through 18. The graphical user interface 240 mayalso receive user input and commands and allow user interaction with aninteraction workspace according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As discussed elsewhere in the present disclosure,embodiments of the present disclosure beneficially allow a user of acommunication device (e.g. a participant in a multiparty interaction) toset or modify capabilities or parameters for interaction with otherparticipants in the multiparty interaction by adjusting one or moreaspects of the interaction workspace (including, by way of example butnot limitation, using drag-and-drop commands and othergraphical-user-interface facilitated interactions to move iconsrepresentative of participants in the multiparty interaction, and/or toapply one or more available tools to the interaction workspace.

The driver(s) 244 may correspond to hardware, software (includingfirmware), and/or controllers that provide specific instructions tohardware components of the computing device 104, thereby facilitatingtheir operation and/or the operation of associated hardware components.For instance, the network interface 232, the power module 236, theaccessories 212 (including the camera 216, the video I/O 218, the videocamera 220, the microphone 224, the audio I/O 226, and the speaker 228),the memory 204, and/or the graphical user interface 240 may each have adedicated driver 244 that provides appropriate control signals to effectits/their operation. The driver(s) 244 may also comprise the software orlogic circuits that ensure the various hardware components arecontrolled appropriately and in accordance with desired protocols. Forinstance, the driver 244 of the network interface 232 may be adapted toensure that the network interface 232 follows the appropriate networkcommunication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP (at one or more layers in the OSImodel), TCP, UDP, RTP, GSM, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.) such that the networkinterface 232 can exchange communications via the communication network112. As can be appreciated, the driver(s) 244 may also be configured tocontrol wired hardware components (e.g., a USB driver, an Ethernetdriver, fiber optic communications, etc.). The driver(s) 244 may bestored in the memory 204 and/or in one or more memories associated withindividual hardware components of the communication device 104.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a collaboration server 116 may include acomputer readable storage medium 304 (which, in embodiments, may havestored therein a collaboration service 120 that provides instructionsfor execution by the processor 308 that enable the processor 308 toimplement the systems and methods described herein), one or moreprocessors 308, a network interface 312, a power module 316, and one ormore drivers 320. These components may be identical or similar to,and/or have an identical or similar purpose and/or functionality as thecorresponding components described above with respect to communicationdevice 104. The server 116 may be located (physically) remotely from anycommunication device 104, provided that the server 116 is connected to acommunication network such as communication network 112 to which atleast one of the communication devices 104 is also connected.

As may now be appreciated, a multiparty interaction as referred toherein is a virtual meeting (e.g. a meeting that is not in person) oftwo or more participants, each of whom participates in the multipartyinteraction via a communication device such as the communication device104. The multiparty interaction may be hosted by a collaboration server116, or the multiparty interaction may be hosted by one or morecommunication devices 104 belonging to participants in the multipartyinteraction. A virtual multiparty interaction workspace (which may alsobe referred to as an interaction workspace, a collaboration interface,or an interactive space) is a graphical representation of the multipartyinteraction, and is displayed on the graphical user interfaces 240 ofthe communication devices 104 used by the participants in the multipartyinteraction. For purposes of the present disclosure, references tomoving, transferring, dragging, dropping, or otherwise acting on aparticipant should be understood to mean moving, transferring, dragging,dropping, or otherwise acting on a virtual representation of theparticipant and/or of the participant's communication device within avirtual multiparty interaction workspace. Likewise, references to aparticipant being located in a particular area of an interactionworkspace should be understood to mean that a virtual representation ofthe participant is located in the particular area of the interactionworkspace.

A method 400 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure willnow be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 9-18. When a multipartyinteraction is initiated, an interaction workspace 900 may comprise onlyan audience area 904, in which each participant in the multipartyinteraction is represented by a simple icon 912. One icon 912 may bedistinguishable from another icon 912 by, for example, participantinitials displayed within the icon 912 representing that participant.For example, in FIG. 9, the icon 912 a represents a participant havingthe initials JC, the icon 912 b represents a participant having theinitials JH, and so on for icons 912 c through 912 g. The icons 912 mayalso be distinguishable from one another by, for example, color, shape,size, text indicating a location of the participant, text indicating aname of the participant, or in any other suitable manner.

The interaction workspace may be, for example and without limitation,displayed in a browser configured to utilize HTML5. The browser maysupport multiple tabs, wherein each tab is capable of supporting anindependent browsing session or, more particularly for present purposes,an independent multiparty interaction workspace. Examples of suitablebrowsers include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and AppleSafari. Depending on the capabilities of his or her communication device104 and the graphical user interface 240 thereof (on which theinteraction workspace is displayed), a participant may be able tomanipulate one or more aspects of the interaction workspace via touch,and/or via a mouse, a trackball, a trackpad, a keyboard, eye gaze, oranother user input mechanism or device. In some embodiments, amultiparty interaction may be scheduled in advance, and invitationscontaining a link to the interaction workspace for the multipartyinteraction may be sent via email, text message, instant message, orother suitable communication means to selected participants. Theinvitations may include a URL or other link that, when clicked by arecipient of the invitation, cause the communication device of theparticipant to open the browser or other program in which theinteraction workspace may be displayed. The URL or other link may becustomized for each selected participant, such that when a selectedparticipant clicks on the URL or other link, any needed credentials forobtaining access to the multiparty interaction are automaticallypopulated in the browser or other program, such that the selectedparticipant need not take any additional steps to join the multipartyinteraction. Alternatively, the selected participant may be required toprovide one or more log-in credentials (e.g. name, screen name, emailaddress, phone number, location, and/or password) via the browser orother program in order to gain access to the interaction workspace. Insome embodiments, participants may be required to create an account witha service provider in order to gain access to an interaction workspaceand participate in a multiparty interaction according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

In some embodiments, participants in the audience area 904 may be, atleast initially and/or by default, in audio communication with eachother, for example via an audio communication channel over which audiosignals are transmitted from and received by the various communicationdevices 104 via their respective network interfaces 232, audioinput/output interfaces 226, microphones 224, and speakers 228. Toassist participants in recognizing which participant is speaking at agiven point in time, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured tohighlight the icon 912 of the current speaker with a highlight 916.Thus, in FIG. 9, participant JH is speaking, as evident from thehighlight 916 on the icon 912 b that represents participant JH. Whenparticipant JH stops speaking, the highlight 916 may be removed from theicon 912 b, and when another participant—for example, participantPM—starts speaking, the highlight 916 may be placed on the icon 912 grepresenting participant PM. In some embodiments, a highlight 916 may beused to highlight the icon 912 of any participant who is speaking (e.g.,if multiple participants speak or otherwise transmit audio signals atthe same time, each such participant's icon 912 may be highlighted witha highlight 916).

In multiparty interactions having large numbers of participants (e.g.more participants than can be represented by participant icons ofsuitable size within the confined space of a display screen), thecollaboration server 116 and/or the communication devices 104 may beconfigured to cause a graphical user interface of the communicationdevices 104 to display only a limited number of participant iconscorresponding to participating communication devices 104. For example,the graphical user interface of a given communication device may becaused to display only the participant icons of the participant usingthe given communication device, any participant who is currentlyspeaking (e.g. a presenter participant), and any participant whose iconhas been modified in any manner or for any purpose disclosed herein. Inthis way, the inherent size limitations of a given graphical userinterface can be overcome in a way that does not meaningfully reduce theinformation available to the participant of the given communicationdevice.

Also in some embodiments, the interaction workspace may be configured toautomatically mute audio signals transmitted by a communication device104 of any participant who is not currently the active speaker. Forexample, while the participant JH is speaking (and while the icon 912 bof the participant JH is highlighted with highlight 916), any audiotransmission from participants JC, SB, KS, JY, JS, or PM may be muted toensure that no one interrupts participant JH. As soon as participant JHstops speaking, such that the highlight 916 is removed from the icon 912b, the muting of audio signals transmitted by the other participants maybe terminated, such that any participant can transmit audio signals toany other participant. Then, when another participant begins to speak,that participant's icon 912 may be highlighted with the highlight 916,and audio transmissions from the remaining participants may again bemuted.

In some embodiments, a participant may be able to customize aspects ofthe interaction workspace 900 according to his or her own preferences.Customizable aspects may include, without limitation, one or more of theshape of the icons 912 (collectively or individually), the size of theicons 912 (collectively or individually), the position of the icons 912(collectively or individually), the order of the icons 912, the color ofthe icons 912 (collectively or individually), a background color of theinteraction workspace 900, a background image of the interactionworkspace 900, a background color of an area of the interactionworkspace 900 (e.g. the audience area 1104, and/or the presentation area1108), and a background image of an area of the interaction workspace900. In some embodiments, a presenting participant may have control overone or more customizable aspects of the presentation area 1108. By wayof example only, FIG. 15 illustrates a presentation area 1508 having a“curtains and stage” background image, which may have been selected by aparticipant viewing the presentation and may be displayed only on theparticipant's communication device 104, or which may have been selectedby one or both of presenting participants JY and JS, and may bedisplayed on the communication devices 104 of all participants in themultiparty interaction.

The interaction workspace 900 may also comprise a tool area 908, fromwhich various tools may be accessed. For example, a participant mayclick on, select, touch, or drag the snapshot or camera tool 948 to takea picture of the participant using a camera 216 of the communicationdevice 104 being used by the participant, which picture may then beautomatically sized and placed within the icon 912 corresponding to theparticipant. For example, in FIG. 10, the icon 1012 e corresponding tothe participant JY displays an image of the participant JY taken by acamera 216 of the communication device 104 e in response to use by theparticipant JY of the camera tool 948. The picture may be saved to thememory 204 of the communication device 104. In some embodiments, theparticipant may be able to modify and save a setting that causes thepicture to be used in the icon representing the participant duringfuture interactions.

The tool area 908 may also comprise a speaker control tool 944. Thespeaker control tool 944 may be used by a participant to mute thespeakers 228 of the participant's communication device 104. For example,if a participant is in his or her office using a communication device104 to participate in a multiparty interaction, and is interrupted by anindividual who walks into the participant's office and wants to talk,the participant can touch, click on, or otherwise select the speakercontrol tool 944 to mute the speakers 228. Similarly, the participantcan again touch, click on, or otherwise select the speaker control tool944 to unmute the speakers 228 once the participant is able to returnhis or her attention to the multiparty interaction. The speaker controltool 944 may also be used, in some embodiments, to control the volume ofthe speakers 228, e.g. by dragging the speaker control tool 944 up toincrease the volume or down to decrease the volume. Also in someembodiments, the speaker control tool 944 may be dragged by aparticipant to one or more selected icons 912 in the interactionworkspace 900 to cause the communication device 104 of the participant(but not other communication devices 104 participating in the multipartyinteraction) to play only audio transmissions originating from the oneor more selected icons 912 (or, more particularly, audio transmissionsoriginating from the participant or communication device 104corresponding to each of the one or more selected icons 912). Similarly,in some embodiments, the speaker control tool 944 may be dragged by aparticipant to one or more selected icons 912 in the interactionworkspace 900 to cause the communication device 104 (but not othercommunication devices 104 participating in the multiparty interaction)to mute audio transmissions originating from one or more selected icons912 (or, more particularly, audio transmissions originating from theparticipant or communication device 104 corresponding to each of the oneor more selected icons 912).

Also contained within the tool area 908 may be a video tool 940. Aparticipant may select the video tool 940 to transform the participant'sicon 912 into a live video feed. For example, in FIG. 10, the icon 912c, 912 d, 912 f, and 912 g of the participants SB, KS, JS, and PM havebeen modified into live video feeds 1012 c, 1012 d, 1012 f, and 1012 g.In some embodiments, a participant may adjust the size of one or more ofthe live video feeds in the interaction workspace 900 as displayed viathe graphical user interface 240 of the participant's communicationdevice 104. For example, FIG. 10 illustrates an interaction workspace900 in which the participant viewing the interaction workspace 900 hasincreased the size of the live video feed 1012 d relative to the othericons 1012 a, 1012 b, 1012 c, 1012 e, 1012 f, and 1012 g. In someembodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured such thatmanipulating the video tool 940 (or other tools within the tool area908) in different ways activates different features or functions. Forexample, dragging the video tool 940 to the participant's icon mayinitiate a live video feed from the participant's communication device104 (using the video camera 220), while selecting the video tool 940 maypause an existing live video feed. Other such combinations will bereadily identifiable to persons of ordinary skill in the art based onthe present disclosure, and are encompassed within the scope of thepresent disclosure.

A microphone control tool 936 may also be included within the tool area936. The microphone control tool 936 may be used by a participant, forexample, to mute audio transmissions from the participant'scommunication device 104. Thus, if a participant needs to talk, listento a message, or otherwise engage in audible activity that is notintended for consumption by other participants in the multipartyinteraction, the participant can select the microphone control tool 936to mute audio transmissions from the participant's communication device104. When the participant again wishes to communicate audibly within themultiparty interaction, the participant can again select the microphonecontrol tool 936 to unmute audio transmissions from the participant'scommunication device 104.

Notably, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured to accommodateany combination of audio and video. Thus, a participant may mute audiotransmissions from the participant's communication device 104 using themicrophone control tool 936, but may still transmit live video through alive video feed activated using video tool 940. Alternatively, aparticipant may pause the participant's live video feed using the videotool 940, but may leave the participant's microphone 224 unmuted. Asanother alternative, a participant may mute audio transmissions receivedfrom other participants in the multiparty interaction by selecting thespeaker control tool 944, but may leave his or her microphone 224unmuted so as to still be able to transmit audio to other participantswithin the multiparty interaction.

Yet another tool included within the tool area 908 may be a presentationtool 920, which may be used to initiate a presentation. For example, theparticipant JY (represented by the icon 912 e) may drag a presentationtool 920 from the tool area 908 to the audience area 904 to initiate apresentation. In embodiments, initiation of a presentation may cause thecreation of a presentation area 1108 within the interaction workspace900, as well as movement of the icon 912 e (e.g. the icon correspondingto the participant whose actions resulted in creation of thepresentation area 1008) from the audience area 904 to the presentationarea 1108. Initiation of the presentation may also cause the initiationof a data channel over which a slide show, video show (e.g. a videopresentation different than a live video feed), screen share, or otherpresentation may be shared from JY's communication device 104 e to theother participants' communication devices 104 via a presentation screen1116. In some embodiments, initiation of a presentation may furthercause the interaction workspace to mute audio transmissions fromparticipants located in the audience area 1104, and to unmute (ifnecessary) audio transmissions from the one or more participants locatedin the presentation area 1108. Also in some embodiments, initiation of apresentation may cause the presenter's icon (here, icon 912 ecorresponding to participant JY) to automatically change from a simpleicon to a live video feed (here, live video feed 1112 e).

A whiteboard tool 924 may also be included within the tool area 908. Aparticipant may drag the whiteboard tool 924 to the presentation area1108 to add a virtual whiteboard to the presentation area 1108. Thevirtual whiteboard may be displayed in the presentation area 1108 inaddition to the presentation 1116 screen (e.g. by dragging thewhiteboard tool 924 to an empty space in the presentation area 1108) orinstead of the presentation screen 1116 (e.g. by dragging the whiteboardtool 924 from the tool area 108 and releasing it on top of thepresentation 1116). A presenting participant may control the size of thepresentation screen 1116 and/or of the virtual whiteboard within thepresentation area 1108 as it is displayed on the communication devices104 of the various participants in the multiparty interaction.Alternatively, the size of the presentation screen 1116 and/or of thevirtual whiteboard as displayed on the communication device 104 of eachparticipant may be controlled by each participant, respectively. Thevirtual whiteboard may be configured to allow a presenting participantto write or draw (using, for example, a finger or stylus forcommunication devices 104 having a touch-sensitive interface, and/or akeyboard, trackpad, trackball, or mouse) on the virtual whiteboard,which writings or drawings may then be displayed on the virtualwhiteboard to other participants in the multiparty interaction. In someembodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured such thatthe presenting participant may select one or more other participants towrite or draw on the virtual whiteboard.

Yet another tool that may be included within the tool area 908 is atexting tool 928. A participant in a multiparty interaction may use thetexting tool 928 to initiate textual communications with one or moreother participants in the interaction. For example, a participant maydrag the texting tool 928 to an icon 912 corresponding to anotherparticipant with whom the participant would like to share a textmessage. The texting tool 928 may then cause a text box to open, inwhich the participant can type a message. Once the participant indicatesthat the message is complete (e.g. by selecting a send button, or bypressing “Enter,” or by any other suitable command), the communicationinterface 104 of the texting participant sends the text message to theselected participant. In some embodiments, the text message appearswithin the interaction workspace 900 of the receiving participant in acomment box associated with the sending participant's icon 912. Forexample, FIG. 10 illustrates a comment box 1016 associated with the icon1012 a corresponding to the participant JC, indicating that theparticipant JC sent the text message “WOW way to go !” to theparticipant viewing the interaction workspace 900 of FIG. 10.

In some embodiments, a participant may use the texting tool 928 to senda text message to every other participant in the multiparty interaction.For example, the interaction workspace 900 may configured such that ifthe participant drags the texting tool 928 to his or her own icon, thenthe message provided by the participant will be sent to every otherparticipant. Regardless of whether a message is sent to one or moreparticipants, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured to displaythe message as a text box associated with the icon 912 of the sendingparticipant in the interaction workspace 900 displayed on thecommunication devices 104 of the receiving participants. In otherembodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may be configured to providean indication to receiving participants of whether the text message wassent only to that participant, or to every participant, or to a subsetof the participants.

A partition tool 932 may also be included in the tool area 908. Thepartition tool 932 may be used to create an audience and/or apresentation area within an interaction workspace 900. The partitiontool 932 also may be used by a participant to create a new, privatemeeting area (also referred to herein as a private interaction area or apartition) within the interaction workspace 900 (e.g. the area 1612created by the wall 1616 of FIG. 16). A tool area 908 may comprise aplurality of partition tools 932, each with different characteristics,or the tool area 908 may comprise a single partition tool 932 withselectable characteristics. In some embodiments, a tool area 908 maycomprise a plurality of partition tools 932 each with some pre-definedcharacteristics and some selectable characteristics. Defaultcharacteristics of each area created with the partition tool 932 may bepre-defined (whether by a participant in a multiparty interaction, by amoderator of the multiparty interaction, by a system administrator, orby a third party who provides one or more embodiments of the systemsand/or methods of the present disclosure. Regardless of whether newlycreated areas are provided with default characteristics, thecharacteristics of a newly created area may, in some embodiments, bechanged as desired by a participant in or a moderator of a multipartyinteraction.

Once a new area is created with the partition tool 932, the participantwho created the new area may automatically be added to the new area, andmay add other participants to the new area, e.g. by dragging their icons912 to the new area. Where the new area is a private meeting area 1612,in some embodiments, all participants in the multiparty interaction maybe able to see the private meeting area 1612 on their respectivecommunication devices 104, and all participants may be permitted to movetheir respective icons into the private meeting area 1612 as desired. Insuch embodiments, the private meeting area 1612 provides an opportunityfor participants in the multiparty interaction to figuratively move tothe back or side of the conference room to engage in conversation ordiscussion with other meeting participants.

As further explanation of how the partition tool 932 may be used tocreate a private meeting area 1612, in FIG. 16, for example, aparticipant KS may have created the private meeting area 1612 using thepartition tool 932 to create a wall 1616. The participant KS may thenhave added the other participants SB and PM to the private meeting area1612 (e.g. by dragging their icons 1112 c and 1112 g from the audiencearea 1604 to the private meeting area 1612), or the other participantsSB and PM may have added themselves to the private meeting area 1612(e.g. by dragging their own icons 1112 c and 1112 g, respectively, fromthe audience area 1604 to the private meeting area 1612). In someembodiments, participants in a partitioned area such as the area 1612may communicate with each other (whether via audio, video, or data,which data may include, for example and without limitation, apresentation, a whiteboard, and/or a text message) without suchcommunications being shared with participants who are not in the privatemeeting area 1612. In other embodiments, video and/or datacommunications, but not audio communications, may be shared with (e.g.received by and/or visible to) participants outside of the privatemeeting area 1612. In some embodiments, participants in the multipartyinteraction may not be notified of the existence of the private meetingarea 1612 and/or of the identity of participants in the private meetingarea 1612 (whether by not being able to see the private meeting area1612 and/or the icons 1620 a, 1620 b, and 1620 c of the participantslocated therein on the graphical user interfaces 240 of their respectivecommunication devices 104, or otherwise) unless they are invited to orincluded in the private meeting area 1612. Additionally, participants ina private meeting area 1612 may remain in one of an audience area 1604and a presentation area 1608, as illustrated in FIG. 16 (where each ofparticipants KS, PM, and SB are located in the audience area 1604 aswell as the private meeting area 1612).

In some embodiments according to the present disclosure, a participantmay choose whether to create a transparent wall or an opaque wall withthe partition tool 932. Different types of walls created using thepartition tool 932 may have different graphical representations withinthe interaction workspace 900 so as to be distinguishable toparticipants of the multiparty interaction with respect to which thewalls were created. A transparent wall is a wall across which audioand/or video signals may be shared in at least one direction. Forexample, the transparent wall 1120 that divides the audience area 1104from the presentation area 1108 may be configured to allow audio and/orvideo signals to be transmitted from the audience area 1104 to thepresentation area 1108 and vice versa. Alternatively, the transparentwall 1120 may be configured to allow audio and video signals to betransmitted from the presentation area 1108 to the audience area 1104,but to allow no signals, or to allow only video signals, to betransmitted from the audience area 1104 to the presentation area 1108.Although some embodiments according to the present disclosure mayutilize transparent walls to divide an audience area from a presentationarea, other embodiments may not. For example, in some embodiments (whichare described in greater detail below), each participant may be givencertain capabilities based on the interaction area (e.g. the audiencearea or the presentation area) in which the participant is located (e.g.the capability to transmit audio to other participants in the sameinteraction area, or to other participants in a different interactionarea; and/or the capability to transmit video to other participants inthe same interaction area, or to other participants in a differentinteraction area), rather than using a transparent wall to filtercommunications between or among different interaction areas.

An opaque wall is a wall across which video signals, but no audiosignals, may be shared. For example, the wall 1616 may be an opaque wallthat prevents participants in the presentation area 1608 and theaudience area 1604 from hearing audio communications from within theprivate interaction area 1612, and similarly prevents participants inthe private interaction area 1612 from hearing audio from the audiencearea 1604 and the presentation area 1608. In the embodiment of FIG. 16,however, every participant in the private interaction area 1612 is alsolocated in the audience area 1604 (as represented by icons 1112 c, 1112d, and 1112 g), and may still be able to receive audio communicationsfrom the presentation area 1608 and/or from other participants in theaudience area 1604 by virtue of being located in the audience area 1604.If the wall 1616 were opaque, and if the participants SB, KS, and PMwere not located in the audience area 1604, but were only located in theprivate interaction area 1612, then they would not receive any audiocommunications from the presentation area 1608 and the audience area1604.

As another example of the use of opaque walls, the walls 1808 a and 1808b of FIG. 18 may be opaque walls that prevent a participant in oneinteraction area from hearing audio from another interaction area. Morespecifically, the participant JY, represented by the icon 1812 a locatedin the interaction area 1804 a, may be able to view the live video feeds1812 d and 1812 e from the participants KS and PM in the interactionarea 1804 b, but may not be able to hear the audio from the interactionarea 1804 b or from the interaction area 1804 c without moving intothose areas. Opaque walls are useful, for example, to establish multipleareas within a single multiparty interaction where participants canengage in small-group conversations, such as for breakout sessionsduring a break in a presentation, or for individual committee meetingsduring or after a large group meeting. Embodiments of the presentdisclosure are also useful for holding online trade shows (using opaquewalls in the manner depicted in FIG. 18), wherein participants can moveamong virtual booths 1804 a, 1804 b, and 1804 c. In embodiments, theopaque walls 1808 a and 1808 b may be configured to allow participantsin any virtual booth 1804 a, 1804 b, or 1804 c to see the whiteboard1816 a and presentation screens 1816 b and 1816 c of each virtual booth1804, 1804 b, and 1804 c, respectively, such that a participant whonotices a presentation of interest can move his or her icon (e.g. theicon 1812 a, 1812 b, 1812 c, 1812 d, 1812 e, 1812 f, or 1812 g) to thecorresponding booth 1804 a, 1804 b, or 1804 c.

Whether a wall is transparent or opaque may also affect what happens (atleast by default, in the absence of a customized setting) when an iconrepresenting a participant in a multiparty interaction is dragged orotherwise moved across the wall. In some embodiments, when an icon ismoved across a transparent wall, the icon continues to be displayed inthe area in which it was previously located, and is also displayed inthe area to which it was moved. In this manner, for example, theparticipant represented by the icon may continue to participate in alarger gathering of the presentation area and the audience area, whilealso joining another sidebar gathering on the other side of thetransparent wall. On the other hand, when an icon representing aparticipant in a multiparty interaction is dragged or otherwise movedacross an opaque wall or partition, the icon may no longer be displayedin the area from which it was moved, but rather may be displayed only inthe private interaction area. In this manner, the participantrepresented by the icon may leave a larger gathering that encompassesthe presentation area and the audience area, and join a smallergathering that encompasses the private meeting area. Using transparentor opaque walls to enable this functionality beneficially allowsparticipants in a multiparty interaction to engage in sidebardiscussions within a partition of the interaction workspace 900 (inwhich participants are already involved) rather than having to useanother communication format (e.g. telephone, text message, email,instant messaging, or the like) to set up and establish anotherinteraction outside of the interaction workspace 900 (which oftenrequires that one or more participants know other participants' contactinformation) for purposes of holding a sidebar discussion.

Referring now primarily to FIG. 4, the method 400 comprises displayingan interaction workspace comprising an audience area and a presentationarea (step 404). The interaction workspace may be an interactionworkspace such as the interaction workspace 900. The interactionworkspace may be displayed on a graphical user interface 240 of acommunication device 104. The audience area may be, for example, anaudience area such as the audience area 904 or 1104. The presentationarea may be, for example, a presentation area such as the presentationarea 1108.

The method 400 further comprises establishing an interaction among aplurality of communication devices, each corresponding to one of aplurality of participants (step 408). The interaction may be establishedover a communication network 112 or via a peer-to-peer connectionbetween or among the plurality of communication devices. The interactionmay be established or facilitated by a collaboration server 116 runninga collaboration service 120, or it may be established or facilitated bya collaboration application 108 running one or more of the plurality ofcommunication devices. The interaction may be initiated at a particulartime by the collaboration server 116 based on a premade reservation,and/or when one or more of the plurality of participants clicks on a URLor other link in an invitation to join the interaction, and/or at thecommand or request of a first participant of the plurality ofparticipants. Initiation of the interaction may comprise execution andcompletion of one or more authentication processes. For example, acommunication device 104 of each participant who wishes to join themultiparty interaction may be required to complete an authenticationprocess with a collaboration server 116 before the communication device104 is joined to the multiparty interaction.

Establishing the interaction may further comprise creating at least oneprimary audio channel via which audio signals may be transmitted fromeach of the plurality of communication devices to every other one of theplurality of communication devices. The primary audio channel maypermit, for example, a communication device 104 a to transmit audiosignals generated by the microphone 224 thereof to the communicationdevices 104 b through 104 g, which may then route the audio signals tothe speakers 228 thereof, which may convert the audio signals intosound. Participants in the multiparty interaction may therefore speakinto a microphone 224 of their respective communication devices 104, andbe heard by the other participants in the multiparty interaction.

In some embodiments, establishing the interaction may further comprisecreating at least one video channel via which video signals may betransmitted from each of the plurality of communication devices to everyother one of the plurality of communication devices. The video channelmay permit, for example, a communication device 104 a to transmit videosignals generated by the video camera 220 thereof to the communicationdevices 104 b through 104 g, which may then route the video signals tothe graphical user interface 240 thereof for display of the video toparticipants using the communication devices 104 b through 104 g. Theaudio and video channels may or may not be combined into a singlechannel.

Another aspect of the method 400 comprises displaying, in the audiencearea, a separate icon corresponding to each of the plurality ofcommunication devices (step 412). The separate icon for eachcommunication device 104 may be a simple icon 912, and it may comprise ashape, a color, and/or text. Additionally or alternatively, the icon maycomprise a still image of the corresponding participant (e.g. an imagetaken by a camera 216 in connection with the participant's use of thesnapshot tool 948), or the icon may comprise another still image of theparticipant's choosing (e.g. a still image of a favorite landscape, aprofile picture obtained from social media or elsewhere, or any otherstill image), which may or may not be stored in the memory 204 of thecommunication device 104. In still another alternative, the icon maycomprise a still image selected by, or selected from an image repositoryof or available to, the interaction workspace 900, or a still imageassociated with an account of the participant with a service providerthat manages the interaction workspace 900, or a still image selected bya moderator of the interaction workspace 900. As yet anotheralternative, the icon may comprise a live video feed of thecorresponding participant, obtained via the video camera 220 of theparticipant's communication device 104. The icon may be static ordynamic in size, shape, color, and/or content. For example, the color ofthe icon may change over time, or the icon may alternately grow orshrink over time, or the icon may morph into different shapes over time,or the icon may display a plurality of still images over time.

The method 400 further comprises receiving an indication that one of theplurality of participants will be a presenter (step 416). The indicationmay comprise, for example, one of the plurality of participants draggingthe presentation tool 920 from the tool area 908 of the interactionworkspace 900 to the audience area 904 of the interaction workspace 900,which in some embodiments may cause a signal to be sent from thecommunication device 104 of the one of the plurality of participants toone or more of the communication devices 104 of the remainder of theplurality of participants, and/or to the collaboration server 116, thatthe one of the plurality of participants wishes to be a presenter.Alternatively, the indication may comprise initiation of the multipartyinteraction by one of the plurality of participants, who may be thedefault presenter by virtue of having initiated the multipartyinteraction. As another alternative, the indication may comprise a firstof the plurality of participants dragging the presentation tool 920 fromthe tool area 908 to a second participant's icon, which in someembodiments may cause the second participant to become the presenter. Asyet another alternative, the indication may comprise a participantdragging his or her icon 912 from an audience area 1104 to apresentation area 1108. In still another alternative, the indication maycomprise a participant dragging an icon 912 corresponding to anotherparticipant from an audience area 1104 to a presentation area 1108.

Also included in the method 400 is displaying, in response to theindication, the icon corresponding to the communication device of thepresenter in the presentation area (step 420). Thus, for example, uponreceiving an indication that the participant JY will be a presenter, theinteraction workspace 900 may move the icon 912 e corresponding to theparticipant JY (and to the communication device 104 e of the participantJY) from an audience area 904 or 1104 to a presentation area 1108. Insome embodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may also convert thesimple icon 912 e into a live video feed 1112 e. In addition todisplaying the icon corresponding to the presenter in the presentationarea, the workspace may also display a presentation screen 1116 in thepresentation area, upon which a slideshow, video, or other presentationmay be displayed. The presentation may originate from the communicationdevice 104 of the presenter, or the presentation may originate fromanother communication device 104 of a participant in the multipartyinteraction. Alternatively, the presentation may be stored in the cloud,and may be streamed into the multiparty interaction via a communicationdevice 104 and/or via the collaboration server 116.

The method 400 further includes automatically muting, in response to theindication, an audio channel of the interaction with respect to audiosignals received from each of the plurality of communication devicesother than the communication device of the presenter (step 424). Inother words, the presenter is able to communicate audio information tothe other participants in the interaction, but other, non-presentingparticipants are unable to communicate audio information to the otherparticipants in the interaction. In this way, the presenter can speak tothe other participants without interruption (whether purposeful orinadvertent) by any of the other participants. Embodiments of thepresent disclosure thus avoid the problem of one or more non-presentingparticipants having to (and/or forgetting to) mute their microphones 224before engaging in other conversations or audible activities.Embodiments of the present disclosure also avoid the problem ofdistracting and/or excessive background noise being transmitted from anon-presenting participant's communication device 104 to thecommunication devices 104 of other participants.

Muting an audio channel or audio signal for a given participant in amultiparty interaction may be accomplished in a variety of ways. Forexample, the muting may comprise turning off the microphone 224 of theparticipant's communication device 104. The muting may alternativelycomprise sending or executing a command or instruction that causes theparticipant's communication device 104 to stop sending or transmittingaudio signals via the audio channel of the interaction, or to stopsending or transmitting audio signals with meaningful data via the audiochannel of the interaction. As another alternative, the muting maycomprise causing other participants' communication devices 104 not toplay (e.g. via their respective speakers 228) or to otherwise ignore ordo nothing with audio signals received from the participant'scommunication device 104. As still another alternative, when acollaboration server 116 is used to facilitate a multiparty interaction,including by receiving audio signals from each participatingcommunication device 104 and transmitting them for playback to everyother communication device 104, the muting may comprise causing thecollaboration server 116 not to transmit received audio signals from amuted communication device 104 to every other communication device 104.

Likewise, unmuting of an audio channel or audio signal for a givenparticipant in a multiparty interaction may also be accomplished in avariety of ways. For example, the unmuting may comprise turning on themicrophone 224 of the participant's communication device 104. Theunmuting may alternatively comprise sending or executing a command orinstruction that causes the participant's communication device 104 tostart sending or transmitting audio signals via the audio channel of theinteraction, or to start sending or transmitting audio signals withmeaningful data via the audio channel of the interaction. As anotheralternative, the muting may comprise causing other participants'communication devices 104 to play (e.g. via their respective speakers228) or to otherwise stop ignoring or doing nothing with audio signalsreceived from the participant's communication device 104. As stillanother alternative, when a collaboration server 116 is used tofacilitate a multiparty interaction, including by receiving audiosignals from each participating communication device 104 andtransmitting them for playback to every other communication device 104,the unmuting may comprise causing the collaboration server 116 to begintransmitting received audio signals from the newly unmuted communicationdevice 104 to every other communication device 104.

While the method 400 is depicted in FIG. 4 as muting only audio signalsfrom the non-presenting participants, in some embodiments video signalsfrom the non-presenting participants may be muted as well. Muting ofvideo signals (e.g. so that participants in the multiparty interactionsee only live video from the presenter) may be particularly useful whenlimited bandwidth is available for communications among the multipartyinteraction participants, as video feeds often require substantialbandwidth. Video signals may be muted and unmuted in ways similar tothose described above for audio signals. Thus, for example, muting avideo signal may comprise turning off the video camera 220 of thecommunication device 104 to be muted, or sending or executing a commandor instruction to the communication device 104 corresponding to aparticipant whose video signals are to be muted that causes thecommunication device 104 to stop sending or transmitting video signalsvia a video channel of the interaction, or to stop sending ortransmitting video signals with meaningful data via the video channel ofthe interaction. The muting of video signals may also comprise causingother participants' communication devices 104 not to play (e.g. viatheir graphical user interfaces 240) or to otherwise ignore or donothing with video signals received from the participant's communicationdevice 104. As still another alternative, when a collaboration server116 is used to facilitate a multiparty interaction, including byreceiving video signals from each participating communication device 104and transmitting them for playback to every other communication device104, the muting may comprise causing the collaboration server 116 not totransmit received video signals from a muted communication device 104 toevery other communication device 104. Unmuting a video signal maycomprise, for example, reversing any of the foregoing actions. Aspersons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize based on theforegoing disclosure, muting options that allow video signals to be sentover a video channel of an interaction, but that prevent playback ofmeaningful video data by communication devices 104 that receive thevideo signals, may not reduce bandwidth requirements, and therefore maybe best utilized in embodiments where sufficient bandwidth is availableto support multiple video streams.

Muting a communication device may refer to muting an audio signal fromthe communication device, muting a video signal from the communicationdevice, or both. Similarly, references to muting audio, muting an audioinput, muting the audio of a participant, and muting the audio of acommunication device, all refer to muting an audio signal as describedabove, and references to muting video, muting a video input, muting thevideo of a participant, and muting the video of a communication device,all refer to muting a video signal as described above.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a participant's audioand/or video signals may be selectively muted for a given area of aninteraction workspace 900 and/or for a given communication device 104.For example, the audio signals provided by communication devicescorresponding to participants in an audience area 1104 of an interactionworkspace 900 may be muted with respect to each other (so that oneparticipant in the audience area 1104 cannot hear audio communicationsfrom another participant in the audience area 1104), but not withrespect to the presenter in the presentation area 1108. Alternatively,the audio signals provided by communication devices corresponding toparticipants in an audience area 1104 may be muted with respect to anyparticipants in the presentation area 1108, but not with respect to eachother (so that one participant in the audience area 1104 can hear audiocommunications from another participant in the audience area 1104, but aparticipant in the presentation area 1108 cannot hear the same audiocommunications). In another alternative, the audio signals provided bycommunication devices corresponding to participants in a private meetingarea 1612 created using the partition tool 932 may be muted with respectto participants in the audience area 1604 and the presentation area1608, but not with respect to each other (so that one participant in theprivate meeting area 1612 can hear audio communications from anotherparticipant in the private meeting area 1612, but a participant in theaudience area 1604 or in the presentation area 1608 cannot hear the sameaudio communications).

As another example, a first participant in a multiparty interaction maybe provided with the capability to mute an audio or video signal from asecond participant in the multiparty interaction, but only with respectto the first participant. In this way, if a given participant hasinsufficient bandwidth to support a live video feed from one or moreother participants, the given participant can mute one or more livevideo streams of other participants to free up bandwidth for remaininglive video streams, or for other purposes. Similarly, if a givenparticipant were distracted by a background noise being transmitted viaanother participant's communication device 104, the given participantcould mute the audio signals being transmitted by the otherparticipant's communication device 104, so as to eliminate thedistracting background noise for the given participant.

As may be appreciated based on the foregoing disclosure, different areasof the interaction workspace 900 may be characterized by one or morebehaviors, including a muting behavior and a video behavior. Whenparticipants move from one area to another within the interactionworkspace 900, the behaviors of the area into which the participantsmove may be applied to the newly arrived participants. Thus, if aparticipant SB moves from an audience area 1104 in which everyparticipant's audio is muted to a presentation area 1108 in which everyparticipant's audio is unmuted, the audio of the participant SB mayswitch from muted to unmuted when the participant SB is moved to thepresentation area 1108. Similarly, if the presentation area 1108 isfurther characterized in that all participants in the presentation area1108 provide a live video stream, then the simple icon 1112 ccorresponding to the participant SB may change into a live video feed1212 c when the participant SB is moved to the presentation area 1108.The reverse is also true; if the participant SB moves back to theaudience area 1104 from the presentation area 1108, then the participantSB's audio may switch from unmuted to muted, and the participant SB'srepresentation within the interaction worskpace 900 may switch from alive video feed 1212 c to a simple icon 1312 c.

In some embodiments, participant-specific muting or other behaviors orcharacteristics may not change when a participant moves from one area toanother. Thus, if a first participant mutes an audio or video signalfrom a second participant (which muting would only apply to the firstparticipant), then the muting may continue to apply regardless ofwhether the second participant moves into an area of the interactionworkspace 900 characterized by every participant's audio or videosignals being unmuted.

Also in some embodiments, the one or more behaviors that characterize agiven area may be default behaviors that participants located within thearea can selectively modify according to their individual preferences.For example, even though an audience area 1104 may be characterized bythe muting of every participant located therein, individual participantsmay selectively unmute audio signals from other participants in theaudience area, thus overriding the default behavior of the audience area1104 of universal muting. Similarly, even though a presentation area1108 may be characterized by every participant therein transmitting alive video feed, a given participant located within the presentationarea 1108 may choose to be represented by a still image or by a simpleicon rather than a live video feed, thus overriding the default behaviorof the presentation area 1108 of every participant transmitting a livevideo feed.

The method 400 may include additional steps not illustrated in FIG. 4.For example, the method 400 may include receiving a second indicationthat a first of the plurality of participants wishes to establish aprivate meeting with a second of the plurality of participants. Thisindication may comprise, for example, the first of the plurality ofparticipants dragging the partition tool 932 onto the second of theplurality of participants to create a new private meeting area in whichboth the first and the second of the plurality of participants arelocated, and/or dragging the icon 912 representing the second of theplurality of participants into an existing private meeting area. In someembodiments, the indication may also comprise the first of the pluralityof participants dragging his or her icon 912 onto the icon 912 of thesecond of the plurality of participants, which may cause the interactionworkspace 900 (or, more particularly, the collaboration application 108or collaboration service 120) to create a new private meeting areawithin the interaction workspace 900 that is populated with the firstand the second of the plurality of participants.

The method 400 may also include establishing, in response to the secondindication, a secondary audio channel via which audio signals receivedfrom a communication device 104 corresponding to the first of theplurality of participants can be sent to a communication device 104corresponding to the second of the plurality of participants and viceversa. The secondary audio channel may be separate from or part of theprimary audio channel. In some embodiments, a secondary audio channelmay not be needed, created, or used to facilitate audio communicationamong participants in the private meeting area.

The method 400 may further include displaying in a private meeting area,via the graphical user interfaces 240 of their respective communicationdevices 104 and in response to the second indication, the icons 912corresponding to the first and second of the plurality of participants.For example, FIG. 16 illustrates a private meeting area 1612 displayinglive video feeds 1620 a, 1620 b, and 1620 c corresponding to theparticipants in the private meeting area 1612 (participants KS, PM, andSB). The private meeting area 1612 may be displayed only on thegraphical user interface 240 of the communication devices 104 of theparticipants in the private meeting area 1612, so that otherparticipants in the multiparty interaction are unaware of the existenceof the private meeting area 1612. Alternatively, the private meetingarea 1612 may be displayed on the graphical user interface 240 of thecommunication devices 104 of all of the participants in the multipartyinteraction, allowing all participants to see the private meeting area.However, in the latter instance, the audio and, in some cases, the videoof participants in the private meeting area may be muted with respect toparticipants in the audience area 1604 and the presentation area 1608(e.g. so that communications among the participants in the privatemeeting area 1612 remain private).

Referring now to FIG. 5, a method 500 according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure may comprise establishing, among a plurality ofcommunication devices, a multiparty interaction with at least one audiochannel (step 504). The multiparty interaction may be establishedsubstantially as described above with respect to step 408 of the method400.

The method 500 may also comprise displaying an interaction workspacecomprising a separate icon corresponding to each communication device ofthe plurality of communication devices, where the icons are dividedbetween a presentation area and an audience area (step 508). Theinteraction workspace, including the audience area, the presentationarea, and the icons corresponding to the communication devices of theparticipants in the multiparty interaction, may be displayedsubstantially as described above with respect to steps 404 and 412 ofthe method 400.

The method 500 may further comprise automatically muting anycommunication device corresponding to an icon displayed in the audiencearea (step 512). The muting may occur in any manner described within thepresent disclosure, and may comprise muting audio signals of acommunication device, video signals of a communication device, or both.

The method 500 may still further comprise automatically unmuting anycommunication device corresponding to an icon displayed in thepresentation area (step 516). The automatic unmuting may occur, forexample, in response to the icon being moved from the audience area tothe presentation area. Alternatively, in embodiments where a presenteris defined before a multiparty interaction is established or initiated(and in embodiments where the participant who caused the multipartyinteraction to be established or initiated is placed in the presentationarea by default), the automatic unmuting may occur when the multipartyinteraction is first established or initiated. The automatic unmutingmay comprise automatically unmuting audio signals of the communicationdevice corresponding to the icon located in the presentation area, orautomatically unmuting video signals of the communication devicecorresponding to the icon located in the presentation area, or both.Automatically unmuting video signals may comprise, for example, changinga simple icon 912 to a live video feed, such as the live video feed 1112e. Unmuting an audio or video signal may occur in any manner describedin the present disclosure. In some embodiments, this step may not benecessary (e.g. if the communication device corresponding to the icondisplayed in the presentation area was not previously muted).

Another aspect of the method 500 is receiving a first request to move orpromote a first icon from the audience area to the presentation area(e.g. a “promotion request”) (step 520). The first request may begenerated by or in response to any signal that a participant would liketo be promoted to the presentation area. For example, the first requestmay be generated by or in response to a participant selecting his or hericon 912, using his or her communication device 104. The first requestmay also be generated in response to a participant dragging his or hericon 912 to the presentation area. Additionally, the first request maybe generated by a user opening a menu (e.g. by double tapping or rightclicking on his or her icon 912, or elsewhere in the interactionworkspace 912) and selecting an option that causes the first request tobe generated and sent.

As persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize based upon theforegoing disclosure, the first request to move or promote a first iconfrom the audience area to the presentation area is essentially a requestby a participant corresponding to the first icon to be given thecapabilities or privileges of a presenter—e.g., to have theparticipant's audio and/or video signal unmuted, to address the otherparticipants in the multiparty interaction, and/or (perhaps) to controlthe presentation screen. Thus, in some embodiments, the first request isa request to be granted one or more of the capabilities or privileges ofa presenter, even if it does not include a request to move a first iconfrom the audience area to the presentation area. For example, aparticipant SB represented by an icon 1112 c may send a first request tobe moved from the audience area 1104 to the presentation area 1108 so asto be able to ask a question of the participant/presenter JY(represented by the live video feed 1112 e) that the remainder of theaudience can hear. Alternatively, the participant SB may send a firstrequest to be unmuted (but without requesting that the icon 1112 c bemoved from the audience area 1104 to the presentation area 1108), forthe same purpose of being able to ask a question of theparticipant/presenter JY.

The method 500 also comprises moving the first icon from the audiencearea to the presentation area in response to the first request and atrigger (step 524). In some embodiments, the trigger may be anindication provided by a participant located in the presentation area.The indication may be, for example, an indication that the participantin the presentation area is willing to allow someone else to speakmomentarily, or is ready to take questions, or is finished with his orher portion of a presentation. Thus, if the participant SB(corresponding to the icon 1112 c) made the first request (e.g. throughhis or her communication device 104), then a participant/presenter JY(represented by the live video feed 1112 e) may grant the first requestby selecting the icon 1112 c. In some embodiments, the trigger maycomprise the presenter moving his or her icon 912 from the presentationarea to the audience area, thus virtually “ceding the floor” to theparticipant who made the first request. Similarly, the trigger maycomprise a second request by the presenter to move the presenter's iconfrom the presentation area to the audience area. In other embodiments,the trigger may comprise the presenter selecting his or her own icon, toindicate that his or presentation is paused or finished and that someoneelse may be granted (at least temporarily) the privileges and/orcapabilities of a presenter. In still other embodiments, the trigger maycomprise the presenter opening a menu and selecting an optioncorresponding to granting the first request.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a multipartyinteraction may be facilitated by a moderator, who controls the locationof each participant within the various areas of an interaction workspaceas well as, in some embodiments, one or more capabilities or privilegesof each participant within the interaction. In such embodiments, thetrigger may comprise an indication or other action by which themoderator grants the first request. In embodiments where the presentermakes a second request to move the presenter's icon from thepresentation area to the audience area, the trigger may comprise themoderator granting the second request, which may automatically cause thefirst request to be granted as well. Indeed, in some embodiments,regardless of whether a moderator is used, the interaction workspace 900may be configured such that the first request is granted automaticallyas soon as no other participants are located in the presentation area.

In still other embodiments, the trigger may comprise the expiration of apredetermined period of time. For example, one or more participants in amultiparty interaction may be allotted a predetermined period of time tospeak to the remaining participants within the multiparty interaction.If the first request is made while a time-limited participant isspeaking or otherwise presenting, then the expiration of thetime-limited participant's time may be the trigger that causes the firstrequest to be granted.

In still additional embodiments, the trigger may be a period of silenceby a presenter. For example, the first request may be granted if acurrently presenting participant is silent (e.g. if the communicationdevice corresponding to the currently presenting participant does nottransmit an audio communication) for three seconds, or for five seconds,or for ten seconds, or for any other predetermined amount of time. Inother embodiments, a presenting participant and/or a moderator may beenabled to promote an audience member (e.g. a participant whoseparticipant icon is located in the audience area) to the presentationarea by selecting the audience member's icon, dragging the audiencemember's icon to the presentation area, or providing anotherpredetermined indication, regardless of whether the audience member madea promotion request. This may be particularly useful, for example, in amultiparty interaction among a teacher or professor and his or herstudents.

Once the trigger is activated or initiated, (e.g. once the promotionrequest is granted), the icon 1112 c may be moved from the audience area1104 to the presentation area 1108. Additionally or alternatively, theparticipant SB may be granted the capabilities and/or privileges of apresenter (e.g. the capabilities and/or privileges of the presentationarea), including the ability to transmit a live video stream from his orher communication device 104 to the remaining participants in theaudience area 1108, (as illustrated by live video feed 1212 c of FIG.12) and/or to have his or her audio and/or video signals unmuted, sothat he or she can communicate via audio or video with the remainingparticipants in the audience area 1108. The one or more participantsalready located in the presentation area may remain in the presentationarea with the same capabilities they previously had (e.g. the ability tospeak to the participants in the audience area, and the ability toutilize a presentation screen or whiteboard), or they may remain in thepresentation area with reduced capabilities (e.g. their audio may bemuted), or they may be moved from the presentation area to the audiencearea, where they may be given or assigned, or where they may adopt, thedefault or standard capabilities or characteristics of participantslocated in the audience area (e.g. muted audio and/or video, no abilityto control a presentation screen or whiteboard).

When a first request to move or promote an icon from an audience area toa presentation area (or to give an icon one or more privileges orcapabilities not currently associated with the icon, such as the abilityto speak to the audience, and/or to provide a live video feed to theaudience, and/or to control a presentation screen or whiteboard visibleby the audience) is received, the icon corresponding to the participantthat made the promotion request may be highlighted or otherwise modifiedas an indication to the presenter, to the requesting participant, and toother participants within the audience area that the participantcorresponding to the highlighted icon has made the first request. Forexample, the highlighted icon 1112 c in FIG. 11 indicates theparticipant SB has made a promotion request. (However, in someembodiments, a moderator, a presenting participant, or one or morenon-presenting participants may be enabled to make a promotion requestfor another participant. For example, a participant associated withpriority data indicating that the participant is the boss of anotherparticipant may be enabled to make a promotion request for the otherparticipant.) Highlighting may be beneficial, for example, to let thepresenter know that another participant would like to address theaudience, or that the participant has a question, or that theparticipant has an answer to a question posed by the presenter to theaudience. Highlighting may also be beneficial to the requestingparticipant, as the highlighting provides an indication to therequesting participant that the request was successfully made.Highlighting or otherwise modifying the icon corresponding to theparticipant that made the first request may also be beneficial to theaudience, for example to allow other audience members to see thatanother participant has made the request, which may or may not influencewhether other participants in the audience which to make a promotionrequest.

The method 500 may comprise additional steps beyond those illustrated inFIG. 5. For example, the method 500 may comprise receiving, from otherparticipants in the audience area of the interaction workspace,additional promotion requests to move the icons corresponding to theother participants to the presentation area, or for one or moreprivileges or capabilities associated with the presentation area. Aseach promotion request is received, the participant who made the requestmay be added to a promotion queue, which tracks the order in whichpromotion requests are made. For example, the promotion requests may begranted in the order they were received, or they may be granted based ona relative importance of the participants in the queue.

Thus, in one embodiment, a first participant SB may make a first requestto be moved to the presentation area, and a second participant JS maymake a second request to be moved to the presentation area. Theparticipants SB and JS are added to a promotion queue when theirrequests are made. The promotion queue may be stored in the memory 204or 304 of a communication device 104 or a collaboration server 116,respectively. The icons 1112 c and 1112 f representing the participantsSB and JS may be highlighted, as illustrated in FIG. 11, to indicatethat they have pending promotion requests. When the participant JY isfinished speaking or is ready to allow someone else to speak, theparticipant JY may select his or her icon 1112 e (via his or hercommunication device 104 e), in response to which trigger theparticipant SB's request may be granted (e.g. because the participant SBhas been in the promotion queue longer than the participant JS), asillustrated in FIG. 12. When the participant SB's request is granted,the participant SB may be removed from the promotion queue. Similarly,once the participant SB is finished speaking or otherwise presenting,the participant SB may provide a completion indication. For example, theparticipant SB may select his or her own icon 1212 c, in response towhich trigger the participant JS's request may be granted. Theparticipant JS's icon 1112 f may then be moved into the presentationarea 1108, where it becomes the icon 1312 f, as illustrated in FIG. 13.When the participant JS's request is granted, the participant JS may beremoved from the promotion queue. At the same time, the participant SB'sicon 1312 c may be moved back to the audience area 1104, where it is nolonger highlighted (as the participant SB no longer has a pendingrequest to be moved to the presentation area 1108), and where theparticipant SB adopts or resumes the privileges and capabilities of theaudience area 1104 (e.g. the participant SB's audio and/or video aremuted, at least by default, with respect to other participants in theaudience area 1104 and the presentation area 1108). When the participantJS is finished speaking or otherwise presenting, the participant JS mayprovide a completion indication. For example, the participant JS mayselect his or her own icon 1312 f. If another participant is in thepromotion queue, the other participant's promotion request may begranted in response to the completion indication from the participantJS. If no other participant is in the promotion queue, the completionindication may result in the participant JS being returned to theaudience area 1104, where his or her icon is no longer highlighted andwhere he or she adopts or resumes the privileges and capabilities of theaudience area 1104.

As participants are moved from the audience area 1104 to thepresentation area 1108 and back again, a primary presenter (in FIGS.11-13, participant JY) may remain in the presentation area 1108, and maymaintain the privileges and capabilities of the presentation area 1108.This allows, for example, the primary presenter (e.g. participant JY)and the temporary presenter (e.g. participant SB or participant JS) toengage in a dialogue that the remaining participants in the audiencearea 1104 can hear and see. Additionally, movement of a temporarypresenter from the presentation area 1108 to the audience area 1104 mayconstitute a trigger that causes another participant with a pendingrequest to the moved from the audience area 1104 to the presentationarea 1108.

Where multiple participants have a pending promotion request, the iconcorresponding to each participant who makes such a request may behighlighted when the promotion request is made, so that the presentingparticipant and participants in the audience area 1104 can see whichparticipants have made a promotion request and how many participantshave made a request. The highlighting may be different for eachparticipant, and the difference in highlighting may correspond to orreflect the order in which each participant's request was made. Inembodiments where the trigger comprises the presenter selecting an iconcorresponding to a participant with an outstanding request (such thatthe outstanding request is granted when the presenter selects the icon),the presenter can then determine, based on the highlighting, whichparticipant has been waiting the longest to have an outstanding requestgranted. In other embodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may displayan ordered list of participants with a pending request to be moved tothe presentation area 1108, which may be visible to participants in thepresentation area 1108, participants in the audience area 1104, or allparticipants in the interactive workspace 900.

In some embodiments, participants in a multiparty interaction may beassigned or otherwise associated with priority information, which may bebased on role, importance, or some other hierarchy or organizationalstructure. The priority information may be entered on anorganization-wide level (e.g. by a third party service provider thatcontracts with an organization to provide embodiments of the systems andmethods described herein for multiparty interactions, or by anorganization that itself manages and uses embodiments of the systems andmethods described herein), or the priority information may be entered onan individual basis by each participant, whether as part of setting upan account with a service provider to gain access to embodiments of thesystems and methods described herein, or as part of logging into amultiparty interaction using embodiments of the systems and methodsdescribed herein. Priority information entered on an organization-widelevel may be saved, for example, in the memory 304 of a collaborationserver 116. Priority information entered on an individual level may besaved, for example, in the memory 304 of a collaboration server 116, orin the memory 204 of a communication device 104. In some embodiments,priority information is not saved in the memory 304 of a collaborationserver 116 or in the memory 204 of a communication device 104, but israther made available to a collaboration server 116 and/or acommunication device 104 from another storage site for use in thesystems and methods described herein. For example, priority informationmay stored in the cloud, and may not need to be entered in embodimentsof the systems and methods described herein at all.

Once provided to a multiparty interaction system, the priorityinformation may be used as a factor or input in determining the orderparticipants in a promotion queue are promoted. For example, if severalparticipants have pending promotion requests (such that the severalparticipants are in a promotion queue), and one of them is a managerwhile the rest are rank-and-file employees, the manager's promotionrequest may be granted first, even if the manager's promotion requestdoes not have the longest pendency. When the manager's request isgranted, the manager is removed from the promotion queue. The priorityinformation may also be the basis for applying a different set ofdefault privileges or capabilities to participants of higher rank or ofgreater relative importance. For example, a participant with a greaterrelative priority than other participants may maintain unmuted audiowhen in an audience area in which the audio of other participants ismuted. Additionally, for multiparty interactions in which participantsare assigned a predetermined amount of time to speak to otherparticipants, participants with a greater relative priority than otherparticipants may be given more time than the other participants.

In some embodiments, the interaction workspace 900 may provide an optionfor promotion requests to be granted automatically or manually. Thus, amoderator of a multiparty interaction, an organizing participant of amultiparty interaction, a primary presenter in a multiparty interaction,or a responsible participant in a multiparty interaction may be able toselect manual or automatic promotion, and may further be able to savethat selection for use during the multiparty interaction and, in someembodiments, for use in future multiparty interactions. When automaticpromotion is selected, the selecting participant or moderator mayfurther be given the option to select whether automatic promotionsshould be granted based on the order in which promotion requests arereceived, or based on the relative importance of participants withpending promotion requests, or in some other order. The selectingparticipant or moderator may further be able to set a time limit onpromotions, such that participants (other than the primary presenter orprimary presenters) who are promoted have a predetermined amount of timeto speak before they will be returned to the audience area of theinteraction workspace 900. The interaction workspace 900 may allow suchselections to be saved (e.g. in a memory 204 of a communicationinterface 104, or in a memory 304 of a collaboration server 116) for thepresent multiparty interaction and/or for future multiparty interactionsinvolving the selecting participant or moderator.

When a selecting participant or moderator chooses to grant promotionrequests manually, then promotion requests may only be granted when anauthorized participant (e.g. the primary presenter) or a moderatorselects the icon of a participant with a pending promotion request, orwhen some other predetermined manual action is taken.

The method 500 may also include returning a promoted participant to theaudience area once the promoted participant no longer desires to havethe privileges or capabilities of a presenter, or when a predeterminedtime period expires. In the former instance, the promoted participantmay select his or her icon, drag his or her icon back to the audiencearea, or complete another predetermined task in order to beautomatically returned to the audience area, or to indicate to amoderator that the participant would like to be returned to the audiencearea.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a method 600 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure comprises displaying an interaction workspacecomprising a presentation area, an audience area, and icons forparticipating communication devices (step 604). The presentation area,the audience area, and the icons for participating communication devicesmay be displayed in substantially the same manner as described withrespect to step 508 of the method 500, although as will be furtherdiscussed below, not all of the icons need be displayed in thepresentation area and the audience area.

The method 600 further comprises providing a first set of interactioncapabilities to communication devices corresponding to icons displayedin the presentation area (step 608). By way of example and notlimitation, the first set of interaction capabilities may becapabilities relating to whether the audio and/or video of thecommunication devices 104 is muted or unmuted with respect to othercommunication devices 104 in the presentation area (e.g. othercommunication devices 104 represented by icons displayed within thepresentation area); whether the audio and/or video of the communicationdevices 104 is muted or unmuted with respect to other communicationdevices 104 outside of the presentation area generally (e.g. othercommunication devices 104 represented by icons displayed anywhereoutside of the presentation area); whether the audio and/or video of thecommunication devices 104 is muted or unmuted with respect to othercommunication devices 104 in specific interaction areas outside of thepresentation area (e.g. other communication devices 104 represented byicons displayed in specific interaction areas outside of thepresentation area); whether each communication device 104 within thepresentation area has control over the mute status of its audio and/orvideo; whether each communication device 104 is represented by a simpleicon, an icon with a still image, or a live video feed; whether eachcommunication device has control over how it is represented (e.g. by asimple icon, an icon with a still image, or a live video feed); and/orwhether each communication device 104 within the presentation area isable to use the presentation tool 920, the whiteboard tool 924, thetexting tool 928, and/or the partition tool 932.

In embodiments, communication devices 104 corresponding to iconsdisplayed in a presentation area such as the presentation area 1108 areprovided with a first set of interaction capabilities that includesunmuted audio and video with respect to other participants in thepresentation area, unmuted audio and video with respect to otherparticipants in the audience area, and unmuted audio and video withrespect to other participants in private meeting areas. Additionally,the first set of interaction capabilities may include the ability todisplay (or, in some embodiments, the mandatory display) of a live videofeed of participants in the presentation area with respect to otherareas, using a video camera 220 of the communication device 104 of eachparticipant in the presentation area. Thus, a participant in apresentation area 1108 may have a “transmission capability” allowing theparticipant to transmit presentation communications, which may compriseany one or more of audio, video, and data signals, to the participantsin an audience area 1104 (or, stated differently, allowing theparticipants in the audience area 1104 to receive, hear, and/or view thepresentation communications from the participant in the presentationarea 1108).

The method 600 still further comprises providing a second set ofinteraction capabilities to communication devices corresponding to iconsdisplayed in the audience area (step 612). By way of example and notlimitation, the second set of interaction capabilities may becapabilities relating to whether the audio and/or video of thecommunication devices 104 is muted or unmuted with respect to othercommunication devices 104 in the audience area (e.g. other communicationdevices 104 represented by icons displayed in the audience area);whether the audio and/or video of the communication devices 104 is mutedor unmuted with respect to other communication devices 104 outside ofthe audience area generally (e.g. other communication devices 104represented by icons displayed outside of the audience area); whetherthe audio and/or video of the communication devices 104 is muted orunmuted with respect to other communication devices 104 in specificinteraction areas outside of the audience area (e.g. other communicationdevices 104 represented by icons displayed in specific interaction areasoutside of the audience area); whether each communication device 104within the presentation area has control over the mute status of itsaudio and/or video; whether each communication device 104 is representedby a simple icon, an icon with a still image, or a live video feed;and/or whether each communication device 104 has control over how it isrepresented (e.g. by a simple icon, an icon with a still image, or alive video feed).

In embodiments, communication devices 104 corresponding to iconsdisplayed in an audience area such as the audience area 1104 areprovided with a second set of interaction capabilities that includesmuted audio and video with respect to other participants in the audiencearea 1104 and muted audio and video with respect to other participantsin the presentation area 1108. Additionally, the second set ofinteraction capabilities may include the ability to be representedwithin the audience area 1104 by a simple icon 912 or by an icon with astill image (whether the image is taken using a camera 216 of thecommunication device 104 of the corresponding participant, or isdownloaded from the cloud, or is stored on the network (e.g. in a memory304 of the collaboration server 116), or is stored locally (e.g. in amemory 204 of the communication device 104)). Thus, a participant in theaudience area 1104 may have a “reception capability” allowing theparticipant to receive presentation communications from one or moreparticipants in a presentation area 1108 (or, stated differently,allowing the participant in the audience area 1104 to hear and/or viewthe presentation communications from the participant in the presentationarea 1108).

The method 600 further includes receiving a command to create a privateinteraction area with specific participants (step 616). The command maycomprise or result from the use by a participant in the multipartyinteraction of the partition tool 932. For example, a participant maydrag the partition tool 932 to one of the audience area and thepresentation area, which action may comprise or result in thetransmission of a command to create a private interaction area. Theparticipant may then drag to the newly created private interaction areathe icon representing each specific participant to be invited to theprivate interaction area, which may comprise or result in thetransmission of a command to add the specified participants to theprivate interaction area. Alternatively, the participant may then selectone or more icons corresponding to participants to be invited to theprivate meeting area, which may comprise or result in the transmissionof a command to add the specified participants to the privateinteraction area.

As another example, a participant may drag the partition tool 932 to hisor her own icon within the interaction workspace 900, which may compriseor result in the transmission of a command to create a privateinteraction area. As before, the participant may then drag to theprivate interaction area the icon representing each participant to beinvited to the private interaction area, which may comprise or result inthe generation of a command to add the specified participants to theprivate interaction area. As yet another example, a participant may dragthe partition tool 932 to an icon representing each desired participantin a private interaction area, which may comprise or result in thetransmission of a command to add each desired participant to a newprivate interaction area. The private interaction area may then becreated and automatically populated with the specified participant(s),including the participant who dragged the partition tool 932 to theicon(s) of the other specified participants.

The method 600 still further includes displaying a private interactionarea containing the icons corresponding to the communication devices ofthe specified participants (step 620). The private interaction area 1612of FIG. 16 is an example of a displayed private interaction area. Theprivate interaction area is displayed within the interaction workspace900, using the graphical user interface 240 of the communication device104 of at least each participant in the private interaction area. Insome embodiments, only participants in the private interaction area areshown the private interaction area on their respective communicationdevices 104 (or, more particularly, on the graphical user interface 240of their respective communication devices 104). In other embodiments,all participants in the overall interaction are shown the privateinteraction area on their respective communication devices 104 (via thegraphical user interfaces 240 thereof). Such display (at least towardparticipants who are not located in the private interaction area) may ormay not include the icons (including any live video feeds) correspondingto the participants in the private interaction area, the number ofparticipants in the private interaction area, or any indication of whichparticipant(s) within the private interaction area is (are) speaking toother participants in the private interaction area. In some embodiments,the private interaction area may be displayed only to participants inthe private interaction area, as well as to a moderator of themultiparty interaction, and/or to one or more participants within themultiparty interaction having a supervisory role or title (which may bedetermined, for example, based on priority information stored in amemory 204 or 304 of a communication device 104 or collaboration server116, respectively).

Additionally, the private interaction area may be displayed as a portionof the audience area, as a portion of the presentation area, or as aportion of the overall interaction workspace 900. The icons ofparticipants in the private interaction area may or may not also bedisplayed in the area in which the icons were located when the privateinteraction area was created and/or when the participants joined theprivate interaction area. For example, in the embodiment of FIG. 16, theparticipants KS, PM, and SB are displayed in the private meeting area orprivate interaction area 1612, as well as in the audience area 1604.

Also included in the method 600 may be providing a third set ofinteraction capabilities to the communication devices of the specifiedparticipants (e.g. of the participants in the private interaction area)(step 624). By way of example and not limitation, the third set ofinteraction capabilities may be capabilities relating to whether theaudio and/or video of the communication devices 104 is muted or unmutedwith respect to other communication devices 104 in the privateinteraction area; whether the audio and/or video of the communicationdevices 104 is muted or unmuted with respect to other communicationdevices 104 outside of the private interaction area; whether eachcommunication device 104 within the private interaction area has controlover the mute status of its audio and/or video; and/or whether eachcommunication device 104 is represented by a simple icon, an icon with astill image, or a live video feed within the private interaction area.

In embodiments, then, communication devices 104 corresponding to iconsdisplayed in a private interaction area such as the private interactionarea 1612 are provided with a third set of interaction capabilities thatincludes unmuted audio and video with respect to other participantswithin the private interaction area, and muted audio and video withrespect to participants in the presentation and audience areas.Additionally, the third set of interaction capabilities may include theability to be represented (within the private meeting area) by a simpleicon 912, by an icon with a still image (whether the image is takenusing a camera 216 of the communication device 104 of the correspondingparticipant, or is downloaded from the cloud, or is stored on thenetwork (e.g. in a memory 304 of the collaboration server 116), or isstored locally (e.g. in a memory 204 of the communication device 104)),and/or by a live video feed.

In embodiments according to the present disclosure, a participant whomoves from one area to another area of the interaction workspace 900adopts the set of interaction capabilities associated with the area intowhich the participant moves. Thus, if a participant is represented by anicon 912 displayed in an audience area 1104, then the participant willhave the set of interaction capabilities corresponding to the audiencearea 1104 as long as the participant's icon 912 is displayed in theaudience area 1104. If the participant's icon is moved to thepresentation area 1108, then the participant adopts the set ofinteraction capabilities corresponding to the presentation area 1108,for as long as the participant's icon 912 is displayed in thepresentation area 1108. If the participant's icon is then moved back tothe audience area 1104, then the participant again adopts the set ofinteraction capabilities corresponding to the audience area 1104.

When a participant joins or is added to a private interaction area suchas the private interaction area 1612, and the participant maintains apresence in an audience area 1604, then the participant maintains theset of interaction capabilities associated with the audience area 1604with respect to other participants in the audience area 1604 and anyparticipants in the presentation area 1608, except to the extent suchinteraction capabilities are modified or replaced by any interactioncapabilities in the set of interaction capabilities associated with theprivate interaction area 1612 with respect to other participants withinthe private interaction area 1612.

For example, an audience area 1604 may be associated with a set ofinteraction capabilities that includes representation of eachparticipant by a simple icon, and muted audio with respect to otherparticipants in the audience area 1604 and any participants in thepresentation area 1608. A private meeting area 1612 may be associatedwith a set of interaction capabilities that includes representation ofeach participant by a live video feed, and unmuted audio with respect toother participants in the private meeting area 1612. Thus, a participantPM who is in both the audience area 1604 and the private meeting area1612 is represented by a simple icon 1112 g within the audience area1604, and has muted audio with respect to other participants in theaudience area 1604 and with respect to the two participants in thepresentation area 1608. However, within the private meeting area 1612,the participant PM is represented by a live video feed 1620 b, which maybe visible to other participants in the private meeting area 1612 butnot to participants who are not in the private meeting area 1612. Theparticipant PM also has unmuted audio with respect to other participantsin the private meeting area 1612, but not with respect to participantswho are not in the private meeting area 1612.

Other interaction capabilities may be included in the set of interactioncapabilities associated with a given area. For example, in someembodiments according to the present disclosure, a set of interactioncapabilities may include a whisper mode capability. In some embodiments,the whisper mode capability may allow a participant to select, withinthe interaction workspace 900 displayed on a graphical user interface240 of the participant's communication device 104, the icon of anotherparticipant with whom the selecting participant would like to initiatecommunications via whisper mode. For example, a participant JS mayselect an icon 1412 c of a participant SB to initiate whisper modecommunications with the participant SB. Upon initiating the whisper modewith respect to the participant SB, the participant SB's icon 1412 c maybe modified to indicate that the participant SB is in whisper mode. Theparticipant SB's icon 1412 c may be modified as displayed to every otherparticipant in the multiparty interaction via his or her respectivecommunication device 104, or the participant SB's icon 1412 c may bemodified as displayed only to the participant JS (e.g. the participantwith whom the participant SB is communicating via whisper mode) via thecommunication device 104 of the participant JS. In some embodiments, theparticipant SB's icon 1412 c may be modified in a first way as displayedon the communication device 104 of the participant JS (with whomparticipant SB is connected via the whisper mode), and in a second,different way as displayed on the communication devices 104 of theremaining participants in the private meeting area. In this way, theparticipant JS can identify, by looking at the displayed interactionworkspace 900, with whom he or she is communicating via whisper mode,and other participants can see that the participant SB (and, in someembodiments, the participant JS as well) is in a whisper mode and istherefore unavailable to participate in another whisper mode.

When two participants in a multiparty interaction communicate viawhisper mode, the audio of the participants is unmuted with respect toeach other, and spatial audio (also referred to herein as 3D spatialaudio or 3D audio) may be used to provide a first apparent source ofincoming audio signals from the other whisper mode participant and asecond, different apparent source to incoming audio signals from thepresenter and/or from other participants. The spatial audio can begenerated, for example, in a collaboration server before beingtransmitted to individual communication devices, or each individualcommunication device may generate the spatial audio. The spatial audiomay further be used to orient the apparent sources of different incomingaudio signals in the same way as the displayed orientation of the actualsources of the different incoming audio signals. In other words, if aparticipant JS utilizes whisper mode with the participant SB, thecommunication device 104 of the participant JS may use spatial audio toreproduce audio signals received from the participant SB with anapparent source that is to the right of the apparent source ofreproduced audio signals received from the presenter, participant JY,because the icon 1412 c of the participant SB is displayed to the rightof the live video feed 1112 e of the participant JY in the interactionworkspace 900.

Although not required for purposes of the present disclosure, use ofspatial audio enhances the ability of participants in a multipartyinteraction to distinguish between or among different audio sources, andto quickly identify which participant in the interaction is speaking ata given moment. As may be appreciated, spatial audio may be utilizedeven outside of whisper mode, to reproduce audio signals received fromdifferent participants with different apparent sources.

Other means of distinguishing different audio sources may also be usedwithin the scope of the present disclosure. For example, audio from onesource may be reproduced at a greater volume than audio from anothersource. Additionally or alternatively, audio from one source may beprocessed in a way that causes it to sound differently than audio fromanother source. For example, speech colorization may be used to makevoice communications from one source sound differently than unprocessedvoice communications from another source, or from voice communicationsfrom another source that are processed in a different way. Any audiocharacteristic of a given audio source may be altered to enable aparticipant to distinguish audio communications from different sources.

Whisper mode may also be used to broadcast a communication to allparticipants in the same interaction area, or to all participants in adifferent interaction area. When whisper mode is used to broadcast acommunication to multiple participants in a given area, the iconsrepresenting the participants communicating via whisper mode may all bemodified to indicate that a whisper mode is active, or the iconrepresenting the participant who is the source of a whisper modecommunication may be modified (e.g. as is the icon 1412 c in FIG. 14) sothat other participants in the interaction area can identify from whomthey are receiving a whisper mode broadcast communication.

Another capability that may be included or excluded from a given set ofinteraction capabilities may be individualized texting betweenparticipants in the same interaction area. For example, participants inthe audience area 1104 may be permitted to use the texting tool 928 tosend text messages to another selected participant from the audiencearea 1104. Similarly, a given set of interaction capabilities mayinclude or exclude the capability to send a texting broadcast to allparticipants located in the same interaction area as the sendingparticipant, or to all participants located in a different interactionarea than the sending participant. For example, in some embodiments aparticipant in an audience area 1104 may be permitted to use the textingtool 928 to send a text message to every other participant in theaudience area 1104. As another example, a participant in an audiencearea 1104 may be permitted to send a text message to all participants ina presentation area 1108 of the interaction workspace 900, or in aprivate meeting area 1612 of the interaction workspace 900.

Still another capability that may be included or excluded from a givenset of interaction capabilities may be the ability to share apresentation screen or a whiteboard with other participants in the sameinteraction area. For example, a participant in an audience area 1104may use the whiteboard tool 924 to share a whiteboard with anotherparticipant in the audience area 1104. The whiteboard may then bevisible only to the two participants, or it may be visible to everyoneelse in the interaction area (e.g. the audience area 1104). In someembodiments, a shared whiteboard may only be used (e.g. drawn on, viathe graphical user interface 240 of a participant's communication device104) by the originating participant (e.g. the participant that utilizedthe whiteboard tool 924 to share the whiteboard), while in otherembodiments, the originating participant may selectively allow otherparticipants with whom the whiteboard is shared to use the whiteboard,or other participants with whom the whiteboard is shared may have thecapability to use the shared whiteboard without any control by theoriginating participant. Similarly, in some embodiments, participants ina given area may have, as part of their set of interaction capabilities,a capability to share a presentation screen or a whiteboard with otherparticipants in a different interaction area. For example, a participantin a presentation area may have the capability to utilize thepresentation tool 920 to share a presentation screen such as thepresentation screen 1116 with participants in an audience area such asthe audience area 1104.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a participantcan move his or her own icon to a given interaction area (e.g. apresentation area 1608, an audience area 1604, and/or a private meetingarea 1612) to gain the capabilities of that interaction area. In otherembodiments of the present disclosure, a presenter, a moderator, oranother authorized participant controls the movement of participantsfrom one interaction area to another. In some embodiments, such as theembodiment of FIG. 18, some participants may be permitted to move freelyamong the various interaction areas or virtual booths 1804 a, 1804 b,and 1804 c, while other participants (e.g. those presenting at a giveninteraction area or booth) may not be permitted to freely move toanother interaction area or booth without permission or otherinvolvement of a moderator or authorized participant.

With reference now to FIG. 7, a method 700 according to some embodimentsof the present disclosure comprises displaying an interaction workspacecomprising a presentation area, an audience area, a tool area, and iconsrepresenting communication devices (step 704). The presentation area,audience area, tool area, and icons are displayed on the graphical userinterface 240 of a communication device 104 of a participant in amultiparty interaction represented by the interaction workspace. Thecommunication devices represented by the icons may be, for example,communication devices 104. The presentation area, audience area, andicons may be displayed substantially as described above with respect tosteps 404 and 412 of the method 400, step 508 of the method 500, and/orstep 604 of the method 600. In some embodiments, the tool area may bedisplayed substantially as the tool area 908 depicted in FIGS. 9-18. Forexample, the tool area may be displayed as part of the interactionworkspace 900, and may be displayed as containing any one or more of thepresentation tool 920, the whiteboard tool 924, the texting tool 928,the partition tool 932, the microphone control tool 936, the videocamera tool 940, the speaker control tool 944, and the snapshot tool948.

The method 700 also comprises enabling a first communication device toreceive presentation communications from a second communication device(step 708). The presentation communications may be any one or more ofaudio, video, and data signals transmitted by a communication device 104corresponding to a participant located in the displayed presentationarea (or, in other words, corresponding to an icon displayed in thepresentation area). Thus, for example, the second communication devicemay be a communication device 104 of a participant JY located in apresentation area 1108, and the first communication device may be acommunication device 104 of a participant JC located in an audience area1104. The presentation communications may comprise the live video feed1112 e, any presentation materials displayed on the presentation screen1116, and audio communications initiated by the participant JY and/orthe presentation materials displayed on the presentation screen 1116.

The method 700 may further comprise receiving a first command to createa private interaction area (step 712). The first command may comprise,for example, a participant KS represented by an icon 1112 d displayed inthe audience area 1104 dragging the partition tool 932 to the audiencearea 1104. As another example, the first command may comprise aparticipant PM represented by an icon 1112 g displayed in the audiencearea 1104 dragging the partition tool 932 to an icon 1112 c representinga participant SB with whom the participant PM would like to communicatein a private interaction area. Alternatively, the first command maycomprise, for example, a participant JY, represented by an icon 1112 ein the presentation area 1108, selecting the partition tool 932 (e.g. inconjunction with a request that one or more participants in the audiencearea 1104 form a breakout group to discuss an issue raised during theparticipant JY's presentation).

The method 700 may also comprise displaying, in response to the firstcommand, a private interaction area (step 716). The private interactionarea may be, for example, a private interaction area 1612. The privateinteraction area is displayed as part of the interaction workspace 900,and may be displayed as part of the presentation area 1108, as part ofthe audience area 1104, or, as with the private interaction area 1612,as an area separate from the presentation area 1608 and the audiencearea 1604. The private interaction area may be displayed on thegraphical user interface 240 of the communication device 104 of eachparticipant of the multiparty interaction, or it may be displayed onlyon the graphical user interface 240 of those participants in themultiparty interaction who are participants (or who have been invited toparticipate) in the private meeting area. The private interaction areamay be displayed with an opaque wall or partition 1616 to indicate thataudio communications within the private interaction area will not beaudible to participants outside of the private interaction area and viceversa.

In embodiments, the method 700 further comprises receiving a secondcommand to move one of the plurality of icons into the privateinteraction area (step 720). The second command may comprise aparticipant dragging his or her icon into the private interaction area.For example, the participant SB may drag his or her icon 1112 c to theprivate interaction area. Alternatively, the second command may comprisethe participant who issued, via his or her communication device 104, thefirst command to create the private interaction area 1612, dragging oneor more icons of other participants to the private interaction area1612. For example, if the participant KS issued the first command viahis or her communication device 104, then the participant KS may dragthe icons 1112 c and 1112 g corresponding to the participants SB and PMto the private interaction area 1612. As still another alternative, amoderator of the multiparty interaction may drag the icons of selectedparticipants into the private interaction area 1612. For example, amoderator may drag the icons 1112 c, 1112 d, and 1112 g to the privateinteraction area 1612.

In any of the foregoing embodiments, the second command may begenerated, issued, or received in response to any predetermined actionby a participant or moderator of the multiparty interaction. Forexample, in addition to moving participants from one area to another bydragging the participants' icons from the current area to the new area,movement of participants (or the generation or issuance of commands tomove participants) may be accomplished by typing in a movement command(e.g. via a keyboard), selecting an option from a drop down menu,drawing (e.g. with a mouse or a finger) a circle around a plurality ofparticipants and the area to which the selected participants should bemoved, or in any other suitable manner.

The method 700 still further comprises displaying the one of theplurality of icons within the private interaction area in response tothe second command (step 724). The displaying may comprise no longerdisplaying the one of the plurality of icons in the interaction area inwhich it was previously displayed, or it may occur in addition to thecontinued display of the one of the plurality of icons in theinteraction area in which it was previously displayed. For example, theicon representing a participant previously located in an audience area1604 may be displayed, in response to the second command, only in theprivate meeting area 1612. Alternatively, as depicted in FIG. 16, theicons 1112 c, 1112 d, and 1112 g representing the participants KS, PM,and SB, respectively, may continue to be displayed in the audience area1604, and icons 1620 a, 1620 b, and 1620 c representing the sameparticipants KS, PM, and SB may also be displayed in the private meetingarea 1612. In some embodiments, the one of the plurality of icons may bedisplayed within the private interaction area in the same form in whichit was previously displayed (or is still displayed) in another area. Forexample, if an icon was previously displayed in an audience area as asimple icon, it may be displayed in the private interaction area as asimple icon. Similarly, if an icon was previously displayed in anaudience area as a still image or a live video feed, then it may bedisplayed in the private interaction area as a still image or a livevideo feed, respectively. In other embodiments, the one of the pluralityof icons may be displayed within the private interaction area in adifferent form than the form in which it was previously displayed (or isstill displayed) in another area. For example, as depicted in FIG. 16,an icon 1112 c representing the participant SB in the audience area is asimple icon, but the icon 1620 c representing the participant SB in theprivate interaction area 1612 is displayed as a live video feed.

In some embodiments, when a participant is invited into or moved into aprivate interaction area by another participant or by a moderator, theinvited or moved participant is given the option to accept theinvitation or the move or to decline the invitation or the move. If theparticipant accepts the invitation or the move, then the participant'sicon is moved to, added to, or remains in the private interaction area.If the participant declines the invitation or the move, then theparticipant's icon is not moved to or added to, or the participant'sicon is removed from, the private interaction area.

The method 700 may still further comprise enabling the firstcommunication device to engage in private communications with othercommunication devices represented by icons displayed within the privateinteraction area. Thus, for example, the participants KS, PM, and SB,represented by live video feed icons 1620 a, 1620 b, and 1620 c,respectively, may be enabled to engage in private communications (e.g.audio communications that are not audible outside of the privateinteraction area, and possibly video or data communications that are notvisible to participants outside of the private interaction area) witheach other via their respective communication devices 104. Inparticular, the participant KS may transmit, using his or hercommunication device 104, audio, video, and/or data signals to thecommunication devices 104 of the participants PM and SB, and may receiveaudio, video, and/or data signals from the communication devices 104 ofthe participants PM and SB at the communication device 104 of theparticipant KS. The participants PM and SB may each have similar oridentical capabilities.

In some embodiments, participants within a private interaction area 1612of an interaction workspace 900 may still be able to hear and observeactivity in other areas of the interaction workspace 900, includingactivity in the audience area 1604 and activity in the presentation area1608. In this manner, the participants in the private interaction area1612 may, for example, follow along with what is being shown and/ordiscussed in the presentation area 1608, while still being able toengage in communications that are not audible and/or visible to, andthus do not interrupt or otherwise distract, the presenter or otherparticipants in the presentation area 1608 and the audience area 1604.

Whenever a participant is present in multiple areas of the interactionworkspace 900 (e.g. in a private interaction area 1612 as well as anaudience area 1604), and/or whenever a participant is engaged inmultiple levels of communication (e.g. listening to/watching apresentation from a presentation area 1608 and participating in whispermode communications with another participant in an audience area 1604),any audio communications being received by the communication device 104of the participant may be reproduced using spatial audio to assist theparticipant in distinguishing between audio communications fromdifferent sources. Thus, for example, the communication device 104 ofthe participant PM may reproduce audio communications received from thepresenter-participants JY and JS with an apparent source to the left ofthe participant PM, and may reproduce audio communications received fromthe participant PM's fellow private interaction area participants KS andSB with an apparent source to the right of the participant PM, thusmatching the graphical orientation of the icons 1112 e, 1312 f, 1620 a,and 1620 c with respect to the icon 1112 g representing the participantPM.

Alternatively, because the participant PM is also represented by theicon 1620 b, the communication device 104 may reproduce audiocommunications from the participant SB with an apparent source behindthe participant PM, and audio communications from the participant KSwith an apparent source in front of the participant PM, thusrepresenting the graphical arrangement of the icons 1620 a and 1620 cwith respect to the icon 1620 b. In some embodiments, where aparticipant is represented by multiple icons in multiple interactionareas, the participant may be enabled to choose which icon representingthe participant should be used as the reference point for determiningwhere to place the apparent source of audio communications from otherparticipants. For example, the participant PM may, in some embodiments,be able to choose whether the icon 1112 g or the icon 1620 b should beused as the reference point from which to determine an appropriateapparent source for reproducing audio signals received from the otherparticipants in the multiparty interaction.

Additionally, a participant in a private interaction area may be able toselectively mute and/or unmute audio and/or video communications fromother participants within the private interaction area, and/or to muteand/or unmute audio and/or video communications from other participantsoutside of the private interaction area. As an example, if a participantKS (represented by the icon 1620 a) wants to be able to hear and/or seekey parts of the participant JY's (represented by the icon 1112 e)presentation, then the participant KS may selectively mute the audioand/or video of the participants PM and SB (which muting may only beeffective with respect to the communication device 104 of theparticipant KS). Similarly, if a participant PM (represented by the icon1620 b) wants to focus on a discussion occurring in the privateinteraction area 1612, the participant PM may selectively mute the audioand/or video of the presenters JY (represented by the icon 1112 e) andJS (represented by the icon 1312 f) (which muting, again, may only beeffective with respect to the communication device 104 of theparticipant PM).

Notwithstanding the foregoing, default muting settings (e.g. a defaultsetting that participants in an audience area 1604 are muted withrespect to each other, while participants in a private meeting area 1612are not muted with respect to each other) may be applied automaticallyas a participant is moved into or out of a given interaction area, suchthat the participant retains the interaction capabilities associatedwith the area or areas in which the participant is currently located.

Turning now to FIG. 8, a method 800 according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure comprises joining a first interaction byauthenticating a first communication device for the first interaction(step 804). Examples of authentication may include, but are not limitedto, simple authentication based on site codes, trusted data formats,shared secrets, certificates, and/or the like. The authenticating mayinclude providing credentials (whether as stored in the memory of thefirst communication device or as provided by a user of the firstcommunication device), via the first communication device, to anothercomputing device (e.g. a communication device 104 or a collaborationserver 116), which may then be compared by the other computing device tocredentials stored in a memory 204 or 304 of the other computing device.If the credentials match, then the authentication process may besuccessfully terminated and the first communication device may begranted authorization to join the first interaction. If the credentialsdo not match, then the authentication process may be repeated so thatdifferent credentials may be provided, and/or the first communicationdevice may not be permitted to join the first interaction. In someembodiments, the authenticating may comprise, rather than comparingreceived credentials with stored credentials, using received credentialsas an input to one or more algorithms, and comparing the resultingoutput of the one or more algorithms to information stored in a memory204 or 304 of the other computer device.

The method 800 further comprises displaying a first interactionworkspace with a plurality of icons representing participatingcommunication devices (step 808). The first interaction workspace may bethe same as or similar to an interaction workspace 900, and the iconsmay be the same as or similar to the icons 912. In some embodiments, theicons 912 may be simple icons (e.g. icons 1012 a, 1012 b), still images(e.g. icon 1012 e), and/or live video feeds (e.g. icons 1012 c, 1012 d,1012 f, and 1012 g). The first interaction workspace may comprise oneinteraction area or multiple interaction areas, which may include apresentation area, an audience area, one or more private meeting areas,and/or one or more virtual booths. The first interaction workspace maybe displayed on a graphical user interface 240 of a participatingcommunication device 104 or on any other suitable device. The displaymay be based on instructions included in a collaboration application 108stored in a memory 204 and executed by a processor 208 of acommunication device 104, or it may be based on instructions included ina collaboration service 120 stored in a memory 304 and executed by aprocessor 308 of a collaboration server 116. Where the display of thefirst interaction workspace is based on instructions stored remotelyfrom the graphical user interface 240 or other suitable device on whichthe first interaction workspace is displayed, a communication networksuch as the Internet, a peer-to-peer connection, or a local area networkmay be used to transfer any needed data or other communications betweenthe graphical user interface 240 or other suitable device on the onehand, and the device in which the instructions are stored remotely onthe other. In some embodiments, the first interaction workspace may bedisplayed in a browser, while in other embodiments the first interactionworkspace may run and/or be displayed independently of other softwareapplications.

The method 800 also comprises receiving a first command to create asecond interaction among a subset of the participating communicationdevices (step 812). The first command may comprise a participantdragging an icon or a group of icons to a new tab in a browser in whichthe first interaction workspace is displayed. Alternatively, the firstcommand may comprise selecting an option from a drop-down menu, wherethe option corresponds to creating a new or second interaction. Asanother alternative, the first command may comprise selecting a toolfrom a tool area of the first interaction workspace, or using a toolfrom a tool area of the first interaction workspace in a predeterminedmanner. As yet another alternative, the first command may comprisedragging a participant icon or a group of participant icons outside ofthe first interaction workspace in a particular direction.

The method 800 further comprises establishing the second interaction(step 816). Establishing the second interaction may comprise multiplesteps, including defining the second interaction, instantiating thesecond interaction, and, in some embodiments, authenticating the secondinteraction. Defining the second interaction may comprise identifyingthe parameters and/or settings that will characterize the secondinteraction. Some or all of those parameters may be adopted from thefirst interaction and/or selected or determined based on one or moreparameters or settings of and/or relevant information from the firstinteraction. Such parameters and/or information may correspond to, forexample, the number, type, and visual arrangement of interaction areaswithin the first interaction; the manner and location in whichparticipant icons are displayed within the first interaction (e.g. as asimple icon, a still image, and/or a live video feed; in a presentationarea, an audience area, and/or a private interaction area); the defaultcapabilities of participants within each interaction area of the firstinteraction; identification and/or billing information of the firstinteraction (e.g. if the first and interaction are hosted by athird-party service provider, and the third-party service provider usesa separate billing or customer ID number for each customer, then thesecond interaction may assume the same billing or customer ID number asthe first interaction); any presentation materials that were being usedor presented in the first interaction area; and so forth. Theparameters, settings, and/or information of the first interaction may becustomizable, such that a participant in or moderator of the firstinteraction may be able to modify or configure the parameters, settings,and/or information according to his or her preferences. Additionally,some of the parameters, settings, and/or information may apply to theentire interaction, while others may be communication device-specific orparticipant-specific. For example, each participant may be able tocustomize the display of the icon representing that participant withinan interaction workspace (e.g. to be a simple icon, a still image, or alive video feed). In some embodiments, establishing the secondinteraction may comprise adopting an attribute set of the firstinteraction, which attribute set may include a display mode attribute(e.g. an attribute related to how a participant icon is displayed,whether as a simple icon, a still image, or a live video feed), as wellas a workspace location attribute (e.g. an attribute related to in whicharea each participant icon is displayed).

Instantiating and authenticating the second interaction may compriseestablishing at least an initial connection and/or communication channelbetween at least one communication device 104 and at least one otherdevice, whether another communication device 104 and/or a collaborationserver 116, and performing at least one authentication process toestablish a level of trust between or among the connected devices. Inembodiments, the instantiating does not use any existing communicationchannel or connection utilized by the first interaction. In otherembodiments, the instantiating may use an existing communication channelor connection utilized by the first interaction, but in such a way thatif the first interaction were terminated, the second interaction couldcontinue uninterrupted. Instantiating and/or authenticating the secondinteraction may further comprise establishing an encrypted communicationchannel, depending on the level of security needed for the secondinteraction. The instantiating may further comprise establishing allproper media flows needed to support the second interaction workspace,although in some embodiments such flows may be established as eachcommunication device is joined to the second interaction.

The method 800 still further comprises automatically authenticating thefirst communication device for the second interaction (step 820). Theautomatic authentication may comprise the same authentication process asdiscussed above with respect to step 804, or a different authenticationprocess. The automatic authentication of the first communication devicefor the second interaction may utilize the same credentials that werepreviously provided in connection with authentication of the firstcommunication device for the first interaction, such that theparticipant using the first communication device need not enter orotherwise provide the credentials again. In some embodiments, thecredentials entered or provided during authentication of the firstcommunication device are stored on the first communication device butnot on a collaboration server, to reduce the risk of the credentialsbeing compromised by a hacker or other illicit actor. The credentialsmay be encrypted, regardless of where they are stored. In otherembodiments, the second interaction is able to authenticate the firstcommunication device based on the existence of the first interaction(or, for example, based on the fact that a command was received fromwithin the first interaction workspace to create a second interaction,which command could only have been given by a known and trustedparticipant in the first interaction) but without accessing or otherwiseutilizing the credentials provided for purposes of authenticating thefirst communication device for the first interaction.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 8, the method 800 may further compriseautomatically authenticating each one of the subset of the participatingcommunication devices to be included in the second interaction. Theautomatic authentication of each one of the subset of the participatingcommunication devices may be conducted in the same manner as describedabove with respect to the automatic authentication of the firstcommunication device.

Another aspect of the method 800 is displaying a second interactionworkspace with a subset of the plurality of icons corresponding to thesubset of the participating communication devices (step 824). Inaddition to the adoption by the second interaction of one or morecharacteristics or other aspects of the first interaction, the secondinteraction workspace may adopt one or more characteristics or otheraspects of the first interaction workspace. For example, the secondinteraction workspace may adopt the visual appearance of the firstinteraction workspace (which visual appearance of the first interactionworkspace may, for example, be modifiable by a participant in the firstinteraction via the participant's communication device 104).Alternatively, the second interaction workspace may be displayed in adefault format that does not reflect any customizations that were madeto the first interaction workspace before the second interactionworkspace was created. Any presentation materials that were being usedin the first interaction may automatically be transferred into thesecond interaction, and such materials may be automatically queued tothe point they had reached when the first command was received (e.g., ifa slideshow had reached slide 20 before the first command was received,then the same slide show may be provided in the second interaction, andmay be automatically queued to slide 20).

The subset of the plurality of icons may be displayed in the secondinteraction workspace in substantially the same or in a similar mannerto the manner in which they are or were displayed in the firstinteraction. For example, an icon that was displayed as a simple icon(e.g. an icon 1012 a, 1012 b), a still image (e.g. icon 1012 e), and/ora live video feed (e.g. icons 1012 c, 1012 d, 1012 f, and 1012 g) may bedisplayed in the same form, at least initially, in the secondinteraction workspace. Once the second interaction workspace and theplurality of icons are displayed, a participant viewing the displayedsecond interaction workspace and subset of the plurality of icons maymodify the same so that they are no longer substantially the same as orsimilar to the first interaction workspace and/or the subset of theplurality of icons as displayed in the first interaction workspace.

In addition to populating the second interaction space with theplurality of icons representing the subset of the participatingcommunication devices, the method 800 may comprise endowing or otherwiseproviding each participant icon in the second interaction workspace withthe same privileges and/or capabilities that were previously held by orassociated with the participant in question in the first interactionworkspace. For example, if one of the plurality of icons added to thesecond interaction space represented a presenter (e.g. a participantlocated in the presentation area of the first interaction workspace) andtwo others of the plurality of icons added to the second interactionspace represented participants in the audience area of the firstinteraction workspace, then the presenter's icon may be displayed in apresentation area of the second interaction workspace, and the other twoparticipants' icons may be displayed in an audience area of the secondinteraction workspace. Additionally, if the presenter was previouslyunmuted with respect to participants in the audience area, and theparticipants in the audience area were previously muted with respect tothe presenter and each other, then the same muting characteristics maybe applied to the participants in the second interaction workspace.Alternatively, every participant that is added to the second interactionworkspace may be initially endowed or otherwise provided with the sameset of capabilities and/or privileges as every other participant in thesecond interaction workspace, which capabilities and/or privileges maychange as the participants organize themselves (or are organized by amoderator) into desired interaction areas.

As may be appreciated from the foregoing disclosure, each communicationdevice participating in the first and/or second interactions displaysthe first and/or second interaction workspaces, respectively, via thegraphical user interface thereof. Users of the communication devices mayadjust one or more parameters of the first and/or second interactionworkspaces to fit their own preferences. For example, a first user orparticipant might increase the size of a presentation area to be largerthan a default presentation area size, while reducing the size of theaudience area accordingly. Another participant may increase the size ofa private meeting area, while reducing the size of a presentation areaand an audience area accordingly. To the extent that participants usingparticipating communication devices and who have customized the visualdisplay of the first interaction are included in the subset ofparticipating communication devices that are part of the secondinteraction, the second interaction workspace may adopt the samecustomizations as displayed to each of the participants. In other words,if a participant has customized the first interaction workspace and isthen included in a second interaction, then when the second interactionworkspace is displayed on the graphical user interface 240 of thecommunication device 104 of the participant, the second interactionworkspace may include some or all of the same customizations that weremade by the participant to the first interaction workspace. However,when the second interaction workspace does not contain all of theelements of the first interaction workspace (e.g. all of the sameinteraction areas), any customizations to or based upon the non-includedelements may not be reflected in the second interaction workspace asdisplayed to the participant.

The method 800 additionally comprises dropping the subset of theparticipating communication devices from the first interaction (step828), and removing the subset of the plurality of icons from the firstinteraction workspace (step 832). Once each communication device withinthe subset of the participating communication devices has beenauthenticated for the second interaction, the same communication devicesare dropped or otherwise removed from the first interaction, and theicons representing those communication devices (as well as theparticipants using those communication devices) are removed from thedisplay of the first interaction workspace. At this point, the transferof the subset of the participating communication devices from the firstinteraction to the second interaction is complete, with the firstinteraction operating independently from and in a parallel to (at leastuntil one of the first and second interaction is terminated) the secondinteraction. As a result, termination of the first interaction will notaffect the second interaction, which, once established, does not dependin any way on the first interaction.

As an alternative to dropping the subset of the participatingcommunication devices from the first interaction and removing the subsetof the plurality of icons from the first interaction workspace, thesubset of the participating communication devices may be suspended fromthe first interaction and their representative icons may be grayed outor otherwise modified to reflect the suspension. Additionally, thesubset of the participating communication devices may be fully mutedwith respect to the first interaction. Then, when the second interactionis terminated (or when a participant leaves the secondinteraction/interaction workspace), the subset of the participatingcommunication devices (or the communication device corresponding to theparticipant) may return to the first interaction, where they (or it) maybe reinstated with the same privileges and/or capabilities they had whenthey were suspended, and the icons corresponding to the subset of theparticipating communication devices within the first interaction may berestored to their original state. In such embodiments, the secondinteraction and interaction workspace serve as a virtual “second room,”in which conversations or discussions need not be related to or affectedby the conversation or discussion in the first interaction workspace.The second interaction may be terminated at a command from anyparticipant of the second interaction, or at a command from theparticipant of the second interaction who issued the first command orcaused the first command to be issued.

In some embodiments, a collaboration application 108 and or acollaboration service 120 may be configured to allow one or moreparticipants to choose from among a plurality of parameters, settings,characteristics, and/or other items that define new interactions, and tosave such parameters, settings, characteristics, and/or other items.Then, when new interactions are established, the saved parameters,settings, characteristics, and/or other items may be used to properlydefine and instantiate the new interactions.

In some embodiments, the first command of step 812 may bedirection-specific, such that dragging a participant icon or a group ofparticipant icons in a first direction generates or constitutes acommand to create a second interaction that can subsequently be accessedby swiping or scrolling in the first direction, and dragging aparticipant icon or a group of participant icons in a second directiongenerates or constitutes a command to create another interaction thatcan subsequently be accessed by swiping or scrolling in the seconddirection, and so on. Thus, the present disclosure is not limited to thecreation of a second interaction from a first interaction, but ratherencompasses the creation of a plurality of additional interactions froma first interaction.

Also in some embodiments, a second interaction area may be created basedon an existing private interaction area. For example, a participant maycreate a private interaction area within a first interaction workspaceof a first interaction, and may then complete a predetermined actionthat causes the participants in the private interaction area to betransferred or otherwise joined to a new second interaction having asecond interaction workspace. In such embodiments, the privateinteraction area of the first interaction workspace may remain in thefirst interaction workspace, and the participants therein may besuspended with respect to the first interaction, as described above.Alternatively, the private interaction area of the first interactionworkspace may be closed or otherwise terminated, and the participantstherein may be dropped or otherwise removed from the first interaction.

At least one benefit of systems and methods according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure is a reduction in the amount of data that must beexchanged via a communication network 112 or over a peer-to-peerconnection between multiple communication devices 104, by reducing oreliminating the need to obtain information, signals, or commands fromone or more communication devices participating in a multipartyinteraction, and/or by reducing or eliminating the transmission ofunnecessary or undesirable signals. For the same reasons, at leastanother benefit of systems and methods according to some embodiments ofthe present disclosure is that fewer processing steps are needed toimplement various features and/or functions and/or to achieve desired orneeded outcomes than are needed in the prior art, thus reducing theworkload on one or more processors 208 and/or processors 308 and freeingthose processors to work on other tasks. At least another benefit ofsystems and methods according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, which results from the benefits identified above, is that acollaboration server 116 and/or one or more communication devices 104can implement various features and/or functions and/or achieve desiredor needed outcomes more quickly than in the prior art.

More specifically, at least one benefit of the method 400 and systemsemploying the same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure,is a reduction in the amount of data that must be exchanged via acommunication network 112 or over a peer-to-peer connection betweenmultiple communication devices 104, because media signals that mightotherwise have been transmitted from participants in the audience areaare automatically muted. Similarly, at least another benefit of themethod 400 and systems employing the same, according to embodiments ofthe present disclosure, is that the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, whichprovide filtering and multiplexing of media signals received from thevarious communication devices participating in a given multipartyinteraction, need not filter and/or multiplex as many media signals(because of the automatic muting of the audio signals of communicationdevices corresponding to participants in the audience area). Thisreduced processing load frees up the processor(s) 208 and/or 308 tohandle other processing tasks, consumes less power (which, thoughgenerally beneficial, is particularly beneficial if the communicationdevice is a battery-powered mobile device), extends the lifespan of theprocessor(s) 208 and/or 308, and allows needed operations to becompleted more quickly.

Similarly, at least one benefit of the method 500 and systems employingthe same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, is areduction in the amount of data that must be exchanged via acommunication network 112 or over a peer-to-peer connection betweenmultiple communication devices 104, because rather than multipleparticipants talking over each other or otherwise trying to command theattention of other participants, the promotion queue allows participantsto be promoted in an orderly manner and in such a way that the number ofparticipants who may transmit media signals is limited to those in thepresentation area. At least another benefit of the method 500 andsystems employing the same, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, is that the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, which providefiltering and multiplexing of media signals received from the variouscommunication devices participating in a given multiparty interaction,need not filter and/or multiplex as many media signals (because onlythose participants in the presentation area are enabled to transmitmedia signals, or at least certain media signals). This reducedprocessing load frees up the processor(s) 208 and/or 308 to handle otherprocessing tasks, consumes less power (which, though generallybeneficial, is particularly beneficial if the communication device is abattery-powered mobile device), extends the lifespan of the processor(s)208 and/or 308, and allows needed operations to be completed morequickly.

Likewise, at least one benefit of the method 600 and systems employingthe same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, is areduction in the amount of data that must be exchanged via acommunication network 112 or over a peer-to-peer connection betweenmultiple communication devices 104, because rather than allowing allparticipants in a multiparty interaction to send media signalssimultaneously, the application of area-specific interactioncapabilities (including, for example, capabilities related to whichparticipants may transmit media signals to which other participants) toparticipants in any given area limits the extent to which media signalsare transmitted. At least another benefit of the method 600 and systemsemploying the same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure,is that the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, which provide filtering andmultiplexing of media signals received from the various communicationdevices participating in a given multiparty interaction, need not filterand/or multiplex as many media signals (because the area-specificinteraction capabilities limit which participants may send various typesof media signals). This reduced processing load frees up theprocessor(s) 208 and/or 308 to handle other processing tasks, consumesless power (which, though generally beneficial, is particularlybeneficial if the communication device is a battery-powered mobiledevice), extends the lifespan of the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, andallows needed operations to be completed more quickly.

Additionally, at least one benefit of the method 700 and systemsemploying the same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure,is a reduction in the amount of data that must be exchanged via acommunication network 112 or over a peer-to-peer connection betweenmultiple communication devices 104, because rather than allowing allparticipants in a multiparty interaction to send media signalssimultaneously, only participants in a presentation area and in aprivate interaction area are allowed to transmit at least certain mediasignals, and the media signals transmitted by participants in theprivate interaction area are only directed to other participants in theprivate interaction area. At least another benefit of the method 700 andsystems employing the same, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure, is that the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, which providefiltering and multiplexing of media signals received from the variouscommunication devices participating in a given multiparty interaction,need not filter and/or multiplex as many media signals as they would ifall participants in a multi-party interaction were enabled to send mediasignals simultaneously (because only participants in a presentation areaand in a private interaction area are allowed to transmit at leastcertain media signals, and the media signals transmitted by participantsin the private interaction area are only directed to other participantsin the private interaction area). This reduced processing load frees upthe processor(s) 208 and/or 308 to handle other processing tasks,consumes less power (which, though generally beneficial, is particularlybeneficial if the communication device is a battery-powered mobiledevice), extends the lifespan of the processor(s) 208 and/or 308, andallows needed operations to be completed more quickly. Additionally,another benefit of the method 700 and systems employing the same,according to embodiments of the present disclosure, is that it allows asingle communication device to facilitate receipt of communications froma presenter participant in a multiparty interaction while alsofacilitating transmission and receipt of communications amongparticipants in the multiparty interaction in the private interactionarea, whereas before the present disclosure, the communications amongparticipants in the private interaction area likely would have occurredvia a separate communication network (e.g. a cellular network) and/orwith separate communication devices (e.g. cellular phones).

Further, at least one benefit of the method 800 and systems employingthe same, according to embodiments of the present disclosure, is areduction in the amount of data that must be exchanged via acommunication network 112 or over a peer-to-peer connection betweenmultiple communication devices 104, because authentication information,presentation materials, and/or interaction settings for a secondinteraction need not be requested and/or received from one or morecommunication devices. For the same reasons, at least another benefit ofthe method 600 and systems employing the same, according to embodimentsof the present disclosure, is that the processor(s) 208 and/or 308 neednot perform as many operations to establish a second interaction. Thisreduced processing load frees up the processor(s) 208 and/or 308 tohandle other processing tasks, consumes less power (which, thoughgenerally beneficial, is particularly beneficial if the communicationdevice is a battery-powered mobile device), extends the lifespan of theprocessor(s) 208 and/or 308, and allows needed operations to becompleted more quickly. Indeed, at least another benefit of the method800 and systems employing the same, according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure, is that a collaboration server 116 and/or one ormore communication devices 104 can establish a second interaction morequickly than in the prior art.

As persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate based on theforegoing disclosure, certain steps in methods according to the presentdisclosure may be carried out by a communication device, while othersteps in methods according to the present disclosure may be carried outby a collaboration server. In some embodiments, for example, acollaboration server may assign or associate one or more communicationdevices participating in a multiparty interaction with one or more areasof the multiparty interaction (e.g. with an audience area, apresentation area, or a private interaction area), but may not displayicons corresponding to the one or more communication devices in a visualrepresentation of the one or more areas. Similarly, and also by way ofexample, a communication device may display, in a visual representationof one or more areas of a multiparty interaction, icons corresponding tothe one or more communication devices participating in the multipartyinteraction, but may or may not receive a request or command toassociate, assign, or reassign a particular communication device toanother area of the multiparty interaction. Additionally, acommunication device may be used to host a multiparty interaction (e.g.via a peer-to-peer network), or it may be used to participate in amultiparty interaction hosted by a collaboration server or by anothercommunication device. Based on whether the communication device ishosting the multiparty interaction or not, the communication device mayperform more or fewer steps of a method according to embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure have been describedin relation to communication devices, systems, and methods for use inmultiparty interactions. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thepresent disclosure, the preceding description omits a number of knownstructures and devices. This omission is not to be construed as alimitation of the scopes of the claims. Specific details are set forthto provide an understanding of the present disclosure. It should,however, be appreciated that the present disclosure may be practiced ina variety of ways beyond the specific detail set forth herein.

Furthermore, while the exemplary aspects, embodiments, options, and/orconfigurations illustrated herein show the various components of adevice or system collocated, certain components of the system can belocated remotely, at distant portions of a distributed network, such asa LAN and/or the Internet, or within a dedicated system. Additionally,it should be appreciated that some components of a system can becombined into one or more devices, such as a Personal Computer (PC),laptop, netbook, smart phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), tablet,etc., or collocated on a particular node of a distributed network, suchas an analog and/or digital telecommunications network, a packet-switchnetwork, or a circuit-switched network. It will be appreciated from thepreceding description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, thatthe components of the system can be arranged at any location within adistributed network of components without affecting the operation of thesystem. For example, the various components can be located in a switchsuch as a PBX and media server, gateway, in one or more communicationsdevices, at one or more users' premises, or some combination thereof.Similarly, one or more functional portions of the system could bedistributed between a telecommunications device(s) and an associatedcomputing device.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links connectingthe elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof,or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable ofsupplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements.These wired or wireless links can also be secure links and may becapable of communicating encrypted information. Transmission media usedas links, for example, can be any suitable carrier for electricalsignals, including coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, and maytake the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated duringradio-wave and infra-red data communications.

Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed and illustrated inrelation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciatedthat changes, additions, and omissions to this sequence can occurwithout materially affecting the operation of the disclosed embodiments,configuration, and aspects.

A number of variations and modifications of the disclosure can be used.It would be possible to provide for some features of the disclosurewithout providing others.

Optionally, the systems and methods of this disclosure can beimplemented in conjunction with a special purpose computer, a programmedmicroprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuitelement(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signalprocessor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such as discreteelement circuit, a programmable logic device or gate array such as PLD,PLA, FPGA, PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means, or thelike. In general, any device(s) or means capable of implementing themethodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the variousaspects of this disclosure. Exemplary hardware that can be used for thedisclosed embodiments, configurations and aspects includes computers,handheld devices, telephones (e.g., cellular, Internet enabled, digital,analog, hybrids, and others), and other hardware known in the art. Someof these devices include processors (e.g., a single or multiplemicroprocessors), memory, nonvolatile storage, input devices, and outputdevices. Furthermore, alternative software implementations including,but not limited to, distributed processing or component/objectdistributed processing, parallel processing, or virtual machineprocessing can also be constructed to implement the methods describedherein.

In yet other embodiments, the disclosed methods may be readilyimplemented in conjunction with software using object or object-orientedsoftware development environments that provide portable source code thatcan be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms.Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially orfully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whethersoftware or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance withthis disclosure is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirementsof the system, the particular function, and the particular software orhardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems beingutilized.

In other embodiments, the disclosed methods may be partially implementedin software that can be stored on a storage medium, executed onprogrammed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of a controllerand memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like.In these instances, the systems and methods of this disclosure can beimplemented as program embedded on personal computer such as an applet,JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server or computerworkstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated measurement system,system component, or the like. The system can also be implemented byphysically incorporating the system and/or method into a software and/orhardware system.

Although the present disclosure describes components and functionsimplemented in the aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations withreference to particular standards and protocols, the aspects,embodiments, and/or configurations are not limited to such standards andprotocols. Other similar standards and protocols not mentioned hereinare in existence and are considered to be included in the presentdisclosure. Moreover, the standards and protocols mentioned herein andother similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein areperiodically superseded by faster or more effective equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Such replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents included in thepresent disclosure.

The present disclosure, in various aspects, embodiments, and/orconfigurations, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/orapparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, includingvarious aspects, embodiments, configurations embodiments,subcombinations, and/or subsets thereof. Those of skill in the art willunderstand how to make and use the disclosed aspects, embodiments,and/or configurations after understanding the present disclosure. Thepresent disclosure, in various aspects, embodiments, and/orconfigurations, includes providing devices and processes in the absenceof items not depicted and/or described herein or in various aspects,embodiments, and/or configurations hereof, including in the absence ofsuch items as may have been used in previous devices or processes, e.g.,for improving performance, achieving ease and/or reducing cost ofimplementation.

The foregoing discussion has been presented for purposes of illustrationand description. The foregoing is not intended to limit the disclosureto the form or forms disclosed herein. In the foregoing DetailedDescription for example, various features of the disclosure are groupedtogether in one or more aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations forthe purpose of streamlining the disclosure. The features of the aspects,embodiments, and/or configurations of the disclosure may be combined inalternate aspects, embodiments, and/or configurations other than thosediscussed above. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claims require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of a singleforegoing disclosed aspect, embodiment, and/or configuration. Thus, thefollowing claims are hereby incorporated into this Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as a separate preferred embodimentof the disclosure.

Moreover, though the description has included description of one or moreaspects, embodiments, and/or configurations and certain variations andmodifications, other variations, combinations, and modifications arewithin the scope of the disclosure, e.g., as may be within the skill andknowledge of those in the art, after understanding the presentdisclosure. It is intended to obtain rights which include alternativeaspects, embodiments, and/or configurations to the extent permitted,including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures,functions, ranges or steps to those claimed, whether or not suchalternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publiclydedicate any patentable subject matter.

Any of the steps, functions, and operations discussed herein can beperformed continuously and automatically.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating a new multipartyinteraction from an existing multiparty interaction, the methodcomprising: joining a first communication device to a first multipartyinteraction, wherein the joining comprises authenticating the firstcommunication device for the first multiparty interaction; sending tothe first communication device a first instruction that corresponds to agraphical display of a first interaction workspace corresponding to thefirst multiparty interaction; receiving a first command, from the firstcommunication device via a communication interface, to create a secondmultiparty interaction among a subset of a plurality of communicationdevices participating in the first multiparty interaction, the subsetincluding the first communication device; establishing, in response tothe first command, the second multiparty interaction, wherein the secondmultiparty interaction is independent of the first multipartyinteraction, such that termination of the first multiparty interactiondoes not affect the second multiparty interaction; automatically,without user intervention, authenticating the first communication devicefor the second multiparty interaction based on the authentication of thefirst communication device for the first multiparty interaction; andsending to the first communication device a second instruction thatcorresponds to a graphical display of a second interaction workspacecorresponding to the second multiparty interaction.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the authenticating the first communication device forthe first multiparty interaction comprises receiving authenticationinformation from the first communication device via the communicationinterface; the first interaction workspace comprises a plurality oficons, each corresponding to one of the plurality of communicationdevices participating in the first multiparty interaction; and thesecond interaction workspace comprises a subset of the plurality oficons corresponding to the subset of the plurality of communicationdevices.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: dropping thesubset of the plurality of communication devices from the firstmultiparty interaction when the second multiparty interaction isestablished; and sending a removal instruction that corresponds toremoving a graphical display of the subset of the plurality of iconsfrom the first interaction workspace when the second multipartyinteraction is established.
 4. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: suspending the subset of the plurality of communicationdevices from the first multiparty interaction when the second multipartyinteraction is established; and sending a modification instruction, whenthe suspending occurs, that corresponds to modifying a graphical displayof the subset of the plurality of icons within the first interactionworkspace as a visual indication that the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices has been suspended.
 5. The method of claim 4,further comprising: terminating the second multiparty interaction inresponse to a command from one of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices.
 6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:reinstating one of the subset of the plurality of communication deviceswithin the first multiparty interaction when the one of the subset ofthe plurality of communication devices leaves the second multipartyinteraction; and sending a restoration instruction, when the reinstatingoccurs, that corresponds to restoring to an original state a graphicaldisplay, within the first interaction workspace, of one of the subset ofthe plurality of icons that corresponds to the one of the subset of theplurality of communication devices.
 7. The method of claim 2, whereinestablishing the second multiparty interaction comprises adopting anattribute set of the first multiparty interaction.
 8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the attribute set comprises, for each one of the subsetof the plurality of communication devices, a display mode attribute anda workspace location attribute.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein thedisplay mode attribute corresponds to whether a graphical display of theicon corresponding to each one of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices is a plain icon, a still image, or a live videofeed.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the workspace locationattribute corresponds to whether a graphical display of the iconcorresponding to each one of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices is within a presentation area or an audience areaof an interaction workspace.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein theestablishing the second multiparty interaction comprises obtainingpresentation materials from the first multiparty interaction.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the establishing the second multipartyinteraction comprises adopting one or more customizable settings fromthe first multiparty interaction.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe one or more customizable settings comprises a setting correspondingto whether a user of a first communication device from among theplurality of communication devices can move an icon corresponding to asecond communication device from among the plurality of communicationdevices from a first area to a second area within an interactionworkspace.
 14. A collaboration server comprising: a communicationinterface for communication with a plurality of communication devices; aprocessor; and a memory storing instructions for execution by theprocessor, the instructions configured to cause the processor to:authenticate each one of the plurality of communication devices for afirst multiparty interaction; associate each one of the plurality ofcommunication devices with one of a first area and a second areacorresponding to the first multiparty interaction; in response to afirst command received via the communication interface from one of theplurality of communication devices, associate a subset of the pluralityof communication devices with a third area corresponding to the firstmultiparty interaction; in response to a second command received via thecommunication interface from one of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices, establish a second multiparty interaction,wherein establishing the second multiparty interaction comprisesobtaining presentation materials from the first multiparty interaction;and automatically authenticate each of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices for the second multiparty interaction based on theauthentication of each one of the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices for the first multiparty interaction; whereintermination of the first multiparty interaction does not affect thesecond multiparty interaction.
 15. The collaboration server of claim 14,wherein the establishing the second multiparty interaction comprisesadopting one or more configurable characteristics of the firstmultiparty interaction.
 16. The collaboration server of claim 14,wherein the memory stores additional instructions for execution by theprocessor, the additional instructions configured to further cause theprocessor to: remove the subset of the plurality of communicationdevices from the first multiparty interaction after the secondmultiparty interaction is established.
 17. The collaboration server ofclaim 14, wherein the memory stores additional instructions forexecution by the processor, the additional instructions configured tofurther cause the processor to: suspend the subset of the plurality ofcommunication devices from the first multiparty interaction after thesecond multiparty interaction is established.
 18. A communication devicecomprising: a communication interface for sending and receiving signalsvia a network; a processor; and a memory storing instructions forexecution by the processor, the instructions configured to cause theprocessor to: join a first communication device to a first multipartyinteraction, wherein the joining comprises receiving authenticationcredentials via the communication interface; send a first instruction tothe first communication device corresponding to a graphical display of afirst interaction workspace corresponding to the first multipartyinteraction, the first interaction workspace comprising a plurality oficons, each of the plurality of icons representing one of a plurality ofcommunication devices participating in the first multiparty interaction,the plurality of communication devices including the first communicationdevice and the plurality of icons comprising a first icon representingthe first communication device; transmit a first command via thecommunication interface, in response to a signal from the firstcommunication device, to create a second multiparty interactionindependent of the first multiparty interaction among a subset of theplurality of communication devices participating in the first multipartyinteraction, the subset of the plurality of communication devicescomprising the first communication device; transmit to the firstcommunication device via the communication interface an indication thatthe second multiparty interaction has been established and that thefirst communication device has been automatically, without userintervention, authenticated for the second multiparty interaction; andsend a second instruction to the first communication devicecorresponding to a graphical display of a second interaction workspacecorresponding to the second multiparty interaction, the secondinteraction workspace comprising a subset of the plurality of iconscorresponding to the subset of the plurality of communication devices,the subset of the plurality of icons comprising the first icon, whereintermination of the first multiparty interaction does not affect thesecond multiparty interaction.
 19. The communication device of claim 18,the second instruction further corresponding to a graphical display ofthe first icon in the second interaction workspace as a simple icon, astill image, or a live video feed.
 20. The communication device of claim18, wherein the first command to create a second multiparty interactionis also a command to obtain presentation materials from the firstmultiparty interaction for the second multiparty interaction.